


Cake by the Ocean

by xRabbitx



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: (NOT a major character!!!), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Angst, Blood and Gore, Graphic Description, Grief/Mourning, Implied Mpreg, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Interspecies Sex, Junkeel AU, Junkfish AU, M/M, Mentions of Rape, Mermaid Junkrat, Violence, implied oviposition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-09 08:05:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10407618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xRabbitx/pseuds/xRabbitx
Summary: Sequel to my fic "It's Eelectric!". You can read ithere^^It's been five years. Mako doesn't live at the lake anymore. Jamie is gone, and Mako is all alone and miserable. What happened?





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, hi hello, and welcome to the sequel to [It's Eelectric!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10130882) ^^  
> We start off with a tone that's A LOT more somber than before, but don't worry! Things will light up eventually, I promise!
> 
> This is just a short lil prologue to get you started. More will come~
> 
> Enjoy!

*

 

The sun is burning on Mako’s skin, and he wonders for a moment if he should find somewhere to get some sunscreen. Thanks to his heritage, though, he can handle a lot more sun than most people, and his skin has already gotten a lot darker over the weeks he’s spent here. The sun has bleached his hair even more, too, so it looks like it’s bright white, especially against his darker skin.

But Mako doesn’t enjoy the sun or the seagulls or the gentle roar of the waves washing up on the sandy shores. Mostly people would probably feel some kind of tranquility watching the sea like this, or they might marvel at nature’s beauty, but Mako isn’t one of those people. In fact, he doesn’t feel anything as he watches the foamy waves, clutching the small fang he carries in a leather strap around his neck, except maybe the dull pain that he’s been carrying around with him for the last five years.

It had been unbearable at first, and it still is, but somewhere along the way, Mako taught himself to function again. The pain is still there, but he has sorted, labeled, and filed it away. It will never go away or stop hurting, but at least he can get out of bed in the morning now. The nightmares have mostly stopped, too, even if it had taken several years. They would still come at least once a month, but at least it’s not every night anymore.

Mako sighs and tucks the little fang back under his shirt. The sun is getting low of the horizon, and he should probably find something to eat. Or maybe just go back to his motel room and watch TV. He does whatever he can to keep his mind busy. If he spends too much time undistracted, his mind will start to wander back to that day and ponder if there was something he could have done differently so it wouldn’t have happened.

Mako grunts and pinches the bridge of his nose, trying to make the thoughts go away. He needs to get away from the sea. Coming here was a mistake, and he should get on his bike and get out at first light tomorrow. Mako casts one last look out over the waves, remembering how Jamie had always wanted to swim in the sea. Mako had told him he couldn’t, that it would be too salty for his skin and gills, but it seems so ridiculous now. It probably wouldn’t have been too big a problem, and they could always have experiments with some homemade saltwater in the big tub on the patio to see if Jamie could breathe in it at all. But it’s too late for that now, and Mako sighs as he looks down at his tanned feet in the teal flip-flops. There’s a fossilized sea urchin half buried in the sand right next to his foot, and Mako picks it up before he can stop himself. It had become a habit of his to collect things that Rua might like. Mako still does it out of habit, and even when he catches himself at it, he doesn’t stop. The collection is slowly growing, and even though it’s taking up more and more room in his bag, Mako can’t bring himself to get rid of it even if most of it is junk.

Mako feels the burning need to hold the little fang again, but he shakes it off. It’s really time to get out of here, and he makes his way up the boardwalk to his motel. It’s not like he enjoys staying in shitty motels, but he hasn’t been able to settle down anywhere again after leaving the cabin by the lake. Maybe someday, he thinks to himself as he pushes the door to his room open and drops the flip-flops on the carpet. Maybe someday he will find someplace where he can stand to live for more than a couple of weeks.

It’s with a deep sigh that Mako throws himself on the squeaky bed and turns on the TV. He flips mindlessly through the channels, watching but not really seeing the screen. He’s exhausted even though he hasn’t really been doing much today. He has been walking up and down along the coast most of the day, and it had been a bad idea, because the dark thoughts are back now, and it’s going to take some work to expel them again. Mako’s eyelids feel heavy, and he lays his head down just for a little bit while listening to the TV’s chaotic noise.

 

 

*

 

            “…truly breaking news, and we have zoologist Stephen Irvine with us right now. Stephen, tell us about this amazing news.”

            “Well, Ray, it’s what we zoologists call a pure miracle. There hasn’t been a single confirmed sighting of one of these creatures in almost three decades, and we had actually put them on the list of extinct wildlife. But if this video speaks the truth, we’re looking at at least one live specimen, and possibly more. These creatures are notoriously shy and will avoid human contact at all cost, so it is possible that there are more out there.”

            “Amazing news indeed, Stephen. Now is there any news about the video? Where was it recorded? Who recorded it?”

            “Unfortunately not, Ray. We haven’t been able to determine exactly where the video has come from or where the specimen is located. We have contacted the police’s video experts, and we’re hoping that they can find some clues.”

            “Now, is it true that there has been spotted some Chinese writing in the video? Does that mean that it could be in China?”

            “We’re working on finding that out, Ray, but there’s a very real possibility that the video is indeed recorded in China. It’s not unheard of that Chinese millionaires will keep exotic pets.”

            “Wait, are you saying there’s a chance that this creature is kept as a pet?”

            “It is unfortunately a possibility, Ray.”

            “That’s terrible!”

            “Is it indeed. Mercreatures are not only extremely rare, but they are also very intelligent. In fact, in the early 70’s, there was a proposed bill with the purpose of declaring mercreatures a species on the same level as humans, but it was blocked by members of both parties. Conspiracy theorists have since claimed that those party members were working on the behest of the shipping and oil industry, as declaring mercreatures to be on the same level rights-wise as humans would mean that they could lay claim to territories at sea. That would cause great trouble for those industr—”

            “Uh, Stephen, I don’t think we should give airtime to unfounded claims. Could you instead tell me…”

            Mako had been woken by the news report, and he had been listening while still being half-sleep on the bed. But at the mention of “mercreature”, Mako’s head had jerked up, and he had suddenly been fully awake.

            There’s a news anchor sitting in front of a large screen that keeps playing the same blurred video clip over and over again; it’s hard to make out, but it shows a giant, illuminated water tank, and inside it there’s a figure swimming around. It’s impossible to make out any details, but there’s absolutely no doubt about it; it’s a mercreature. The tail is long, and it’s attached to the torso of something that looks very human. The news anchor is blocking some of the video with his body, and the live feed with the zoologist keeps popping up and blocking even more, so Mako can’t get a good look at the video. He isn’t breathing as he digs his phone and out does a quick search: “mercreature water tank”.

            The video is the very first search result, and Mako’s thumb trembles slightly as he taps it. There’s the video again, only this time Mako can see all of it. He enlarges it and grabs his reading glasses from the nightstand. The camera films the floor at first. There’s a lot of feet and a lot of excited talking in different languages. The picture then shakes a lot before it finally shows the tank. There it is, the mercreature, and Mako drops the phone on the bed as if it had suddenly turned burning hot. He feels like he’s having a heart attack, and he actually has to take a moment to get his breathing under control before he dares pick up his phone again. Part of him thinks that maybe he is mistaken, but no, there’s no doubt about it. The picture is too blurry for him to see the mercreature’s face, but as it circles in front of the glass and the excited people watching it, it’s clear as day that it’s missing half of its right arm.

 

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was the prologue! I hope you liked it :) 
> 
> I'm already working on the next chapter so hopefully it won't be too long before it comes out!
> 
> If you're interested in my ramblings about my fics, you can follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/drrtyrabbit) or [Tumblr](https://rabbitvswonderland.tumblr.com/)!


	2. One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The video of the one-armed mercreature has flipped Mako's world upside down, and even though he doesn't know for sure that the creature in the video actually is Jamie, he knows how to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh dear, it's time for chapter 1 already! 
> 
> Please, go ahead and get into it! I hope you like it :)

*

 

Beijing is freezing, and Mako thoroughly regrets not having invested in some warmer clothes before leaving; he’s going to take a hard time finding anything that will fit him here. He doesn’t worry too much about it, though, because he has other, more important things to do, and Mako simply tucks his jacket tighter around himself as he stalks away from the airport to find a cab. He has had to call in every and all favors owed him and withdrawn all of his savings to do this, and he might still fail—hell, it might not even be Jamie in that tank—but he knows that he will regret it forever if he doesn’t try.

            After some back and forth in Mako’s broken Chinese (he only knows the words from the phrase book he read on the plane here), the driver figures out where Mako wants to go and takes him downtown to the tiny apartment he has rented. It’s completely empty except for a mat on the floor and a few necessities in the tiny kitchenette, but it’s enough for Mako. He sets up his laptop and opens the list of information he has compiled so far. Most of the information he has gathered has come from his old contacts in the Triad, and Mako sends them a grateful thought as he checks the first point on the list: “Go to Beijing”. This was easy, but the next point is a lot less easy: “Track down keeper”.

            The keeper’s name is Song (Mako doesn’t know if it’s his first or last name), but that’s all Mako knows about him. The only other thing Mako knows is where he works. It had taken pulling some extra strings and squeezing on some sore spots, but Mako has found out that the mercreature is kept by some rich foreigner, Tucker Peters (sounds American), who charges people a fortune to see it. He’s been doing it for years, but it’s only come out now because he doesn’t allow anyone inside without making them sign a non-disclosure contract (whoever leaked that video is probably busy trying not to get sued from here and into next century).

The thought of Jamie being locked up in a tank against his will makes Mako’s fingers tingle with the urge to introduce his fists to that rich bastard’s face. Mako will punish him severely for not only kidnapping and exploiting Jamie, but for letting Mako suffer for five fucking years, thinking that Jamie was dead. And then there’s Rua. Mako swallows and finds the small fang around his neck to clutch it tightly in his fist. There’s a solid ball of rage, grief, and hatred lodged firmly in Mako’s chest, and it makes him fantasize of doing unspeakable things to whoever is responsible for his misery, driving him, and urging him to sacrifice whatever he has to to get his revenge. Even if revenge won’t bring back what he has lost.

Mako sighs and pushes to his feet. He stares out the tiny window in the kitchenette while the water for his minute ramen boils. The skies are grey, and there’s a misty rain falling, making the city look blurred and unreal, sort of like Mako’s life feels. As he stands there, staring at the blurred dots of people moving around far below him on the street, he’s struck by a sudden sense of doubt. Maybe he shouldn’t have come here. What is he even doing here? Has he really just jeopardized all of his funds, his comfortable retired life, on some idiotic rescues slash revenge mission? He doesn’t even know for sure that the creature in the tank is Jamie, and even if it is, he doesn’t know if this rich guy had anything to do with what happened. Maybe he actually rescued Jamie from some other horrible place? Maybe Jamie is doing great where he is now. Maybe—maybe he wasn’t taken from Mako at all. Maybe he left and just happened to end up here. Maybe these creatures don’t have any kind of parent instinct or maybe Jamie just stopped caring? Maybe he never really cared to begin with? It’s not like he and Jamie were ever really _together_. Right? They’re not even the same species, and it’s not like they could move to the suburb and take on a mortgage. It could never have been normal for them, and maybe Mako had been a fool for thinking that he could ever build up anything resembling normalcy with Jamie? What would people—former co-workers and friends—even think if they ever knew what he was doing right now? They would laugh at him, probably think he had gone completely off the rails. How could a man ever want to be with something…  non-human? Mako’s thoughts are interrupted by the whistle from the kettle, and he takes it off the small hotplate and pours the water over the ramen.

The thing is, though, that Jamie isn’t all non-human. Just because he doesn’t look totally human, it doesn’t mean that he isn’t worth as much as one. Mako had spent almost a full year at the lake with Jamie, and later Rua, before everything had turned to shit, and during that time, Jamie had showed that he was much more than just a stupid fish. His language skills had developed a lot more, and he and Mako had been able to carry long conversations, and they had even fought once or twice about stupid crap. They had lived separately—Jamie and Rua in the lake, and Mako in the house—but Mako had come out to the lake every morning, and when the water had been warm enough, he had gone swimming with them. He had helped Jamie look up more information on mercreatures online to find out if they could more of them, and Mako had begun understanding why those people had wanted give mercreatures the same legal standing as humans, because they basically were; they just didn’t look it.

Mako forgets about his ramen, and he ends up having to eat them soggy and cold while re-watching the blurred video clip for the nth time. Sometimes he swears he can make out Jamie’s face on the fuzzy silhouette of the mercreature, but he knows that it’s just wishful thinking. He needs harder evidence to determine whether or not it’s actually Jamie and whether or not he is going to go on with his plan (which requires him to get pretty brutal), and there’s only one way he can get that; he has to see the water tank with his own eyes.

 

 

*

 

Mako has spent most of his adult life setting money aside for the day he would retire. Not a lot, but just a little every month, and it had been extremely satisfying to watch the amount slowly grow and grow over the years. It had been the idea that he would live off of it by the lake, never living in luxury, but never wanting for anything either. Those plans had been scrapped when he had come back from a supply run in town and found his life in utter ruins. Mako has nothing left to lose now but his money, and he doesn’t care about them anymore.

He doesn’t hesitate even for a second when he transfers almost all of his savings to the bank account listed in the email. It has taken him a couple of days, but he had eventually found out how to get a ticket to see the creature in the tank. It’s not just some site you can visit like an aquarium; no, it takes more than that. It’s only really possible to get into the place with an invitation, and even then you still have to pay a substantial amount of money to even get through the door. Mako has spun a nice, long lie to his contact in the Triad—something about being deadly sick and just wanting to experience this miracle before he goes out—which usually wouldn’t get anyone anywhere with this guy, but he and Mako go back a long way, and he owes Mako more than one favor from almost 30 years in the business. So his friend contacts a friend of a friend of a cousin’s older brother’s ex-girlfriend’s father or something like that—Mako really doesn’t care how it happens—and eventually he gets ahold of someone who has seen the creature and who can make sure Mako gets an invitation.

Now Mako is sitting on the floor of the tiny apartment, waiting for the confirmation email and instructions. To pass the time, he starts writing a list of all the things he needs to bring: fake ID, cap, mouth mask, and finally and most importantly, a double dose of pills to repress any kind of rut-like effects, because Mako is pretty sure that if it turns out to actually be Jamie in the tank, it won’t take much more than one look at him to kick his system go into overdrive, and the last he wants is go into a rut in the middle of a crowd. He hasn’t been in a rut since Jamie disappeared from the lake. He knows that deep, emotional trauma can affect the cycle, but even after he started being able to function somewhat normally again, his cycle had still been out of commission. He had felt it stir a bit when he had tried to watch some omega porn once to see if his sex drive was even alive, but it hadn’t really been a success at all. The only conclusion he can draw is that he has bonded himself so tightly to Jamie that nothing or no one else can really get him going. Omegas bond with their alpha, if they’re lucky enough to find one, but Mako has never before heard of an alpha bonding with their omega like this. Maybe Jamie’s special? Or maybe Mako’s special? Or maybe alphas and omegas bond in exactly the same way, but there’s just always been more focus on the omega, because they’re supposed to be the co-dependent, submissive part of the relationship, and not the other way around? Submission, dependency, and devotion aren’t exactly words that most people would mostly associate with alphas, but most people have probably never met a real alpha either. There’s so few of them left, and as far as Mako knows, most of them are incognito just like him.

His phone dings as the confirmation email comes through, and Mako almost drops it in his eagerness to open the email.

There it is; it’s the address, date and time. And it’s tomorrow. Mako’s heart pounds against his ribcage as he looks up the address, and just as he suspected, it’s in a neighborhood that only houses the ultra-rich. It looks like it’s a gated community, too, and Mako can’t help but wonder what other depraved things that go on in there. Discovering that some rich asshole is keeping an exotic and endangered creature as a pet is pretty tame in comparison to what Mako knows goes on in some of the clubs that require you to be a billionaire to even be considered as a member. He has seen some of it, and it comes back to haunt him sometimes.

Mako shudders and pushes the memories out of his mind; there are other things he needs to focus on now, and he begins planning the tomorrow instead. He writes down a list of all the possible scenarios that could happen and how he’s going to deal with them if they do happen. Mostly, he just wants to go in there, confirm it’s Jamie in the tank, and then get out so he can prepare for the next step of his plan.

He ends up sitting up almost all night, planning and mentally preparing himself. This has the potential of going very wrong, very fast; Mako knows from experience that a guy like this rich son of bitch is probably drowning in guards, and he fully expects that the place will have extremely heavy security, probably ex-military, and although Mako is a fierce combatant himself, he’s getting older, out of practice, and despite his strength and size, he can only take on so many at a time. So the best option is to try and make sure that he won’t have to. The fake ID is just a precaution; even though they’ve never told him as much, Mako is positive that this place are doing background checks to make sure that they don’t accidentally let in any journalists or protesters. And while there’s no links to any people like that in Mako’s own background, he’d rather not risk anything, so he has dug up one of his old aliases, and even fabricated a history of sickness that will match the one he told his Triad friend about. If things go south and Mako has to make a run for it, he would prefer that these guys didn’t know his real name.

When he finally realizes how late (or rather early) it is, it’s too late for him to sleep, so he gets up and takes a long shower instead. The bathroom is so tiny that he has to take all his clothes off and back into it, closing the door in front of him, but it doesn’t matter. Mako just stands there for almost half an hour, resting his forehead against the tiled wall with his eyes closed and letting the water wash over his body. He tries to imagine what it will be like to see Jamie again after thinking he was dead for five years, but he can’t. He can’t even believe that it’s actually Jamie on that video. His brain simply won’t allow him to get hopeful about it. All this, all his preparations feel totally absurd, and he still has to pinch himself ever now and then to make sure that this isn’t just some kind of strange dream. It has to be Jamie. Simple as that. Even if his brain and heart can’t even accept the possibility, Mako has to force himself to believe that it’s Jamie. Otherwise this whole project has been a complete waste of time and money. No, it has to be Jamie, and there has to be a way for Mako to get him out.

Mako shakes his head; as hard as it is for him to allow himself to even hope that it’s Jamie, the idea of doing nothing after seeing the video makes him feel slightly sick. The thought that maybe, just maybe, his life hasn’t been totally ruined, that while he will never get Rua back, he can perhaps get Jamie back, is all the motivation Mako could ever need.

The alarm rings somewhere inside the apartment, and Mako turns off the water. It’s time, and he dries off, gets dressed and downs the handful of repression pills, trying to settle his racing heart by going over the plan in his head again and again. It helps a little, but Mako’s heart is still beating faster than normally as he sits in the cab, watching the city glide by. It’s raining again, and everything looks bleak and alien in the grey morning light. Mako adjusts the paper mask covering his nose and mouth, hoping that he will be allowed to keep it on. Just with the fake ID, it wouldn’t a catastrophe if they saw his full face, but he’d like to avoid it.

The buildings that whizz by the car window as they get closer to Mako’s destination don’t change much. It’s the same slum and trash everywhere, and Mako starts getting worried that they might be going the wrong way, but before he can say anything to the driver, the cab comes to a halt outside a set of tall, iron gates. The guard by the gates comes out a small booth and exchanges some words with the driver before coming back to Mako and knocking on the window with a very suspicious look on his face. Mako rolls down the window and shows him the confirmation email on his phone, and the guard quickly apologizes and runs back to his little booth to open the gates for them.

It’s almost like a different universe inside the gates, and Mako has to admit that he’s a little impressed. It looks like they have everything they need here; there are shops, supermarkets, bars and nightclubs, and what looks like schools, too. The people living in here could probably go through most of their lives without ever having to leave to experience the real world. It wouldn’t surprise Mako if whoever is in charge in here has the local authorities bought and paid for, which means that the laws of the land don’t apply in here. That’s probably why that rich guy has set up shop in here; even if he’s found out, there’s not really anything anyone can do about it. Not legally, anyway. Mako has learned a long time ago that people like this only understand one language, and that’s violence. Mako is fully prepared to use his extensive vocabulary if needed.

 

*

 

The lobby is white and cool, and Mako immediately feels awkward and exposed. There’s nothing in here but a receptionist’s desk with a smiling Chinese woman in a uniform behind it. Mako feels a bit like he’s walked straight into a Bond villain’s lair, and he can’t help but think it’s all a bit extravagant and ridiculous as he goes up to her.

            “Uh,” Mako starts, but she interrupts him politely and coolly.

            “Invitation, please?” There’s almost no accent.

            Mako shows her his phone, and she gently plucks it from his hand to check it. She types something on a tablet, probably looking him up in their registry. Mako waits patiently and tries to memorize her face, just in case, but it’s difficult. Although her face looks nude, Mako can tell she’s wearing a thick layer of makeup, and it’s erasing almost all recognizable features of her face, making her look more like a mannequin than a real human. This just enhances the feeling of having gotten caught in a parallel James Bond universe, and Mako is glad that he’s wearing the face mask, because that allows him to smile a bit. He actually forgets to be tense and nervous for a moment as he tries to imagine what the guy who owns all this looks like and the image of a tiny bald man with a white cat pops into his head.

            “Mister Fawkes?” The receptionist interrupts his thoughts with a cool smile. “Go right ahead.” She gestures to the frosted double glass doors to the left of them before handing Mako’s phone back to him.

            The doors lead into what almost looks like the security area in an airport. There’s a line of people—most of them in expensive clothes—waiting in front of a metal detector and a scanner. Everything looks new, and Mako is pretty sure this was probably hastily added after the video was leaked to prevent anything similar from happening again. There are guards lining the walls, and although they don’t look to be armed, Mako knows better. He gets in line, nice and easy, and he takes off his shoes and puts his phone into the tray as told. He doesn’t beep as he walks through the metal detector, and it only takes a few moments before he’s out on the other side. The guards are eyeing him a bit nervously, but Mako is used to that due to his size. Most people are nervous around him.

            Once he has been thoroughly cleared and his electronics have been placed in a lockbox (for which they give him a small stub of paper with a number on it), Mako follows the line of people into the next room, which apparently the actual waiting room, because it’s furnished with couches, plants, and even a table to glasses of champagne. Mako isn’t interested in any of it, and he spends the wait in the corner, watching the other people in the group. Most of them look like Asian businessmen, but there are a couple of white people among them as well. From what Mako knows about language, some of them are Russian and Italian. Most people are standing around in smaller groups, murmuring amongst each other, and there’s a general vibe of excitement in the room. Mako feels very much out of place here, and he’s just about to walk over to the champagne table to grab a glass and try and quell his nervousness when a man slides up beside him. He asks him something in Chinese despite not looking Chinese at all.

            “What?”

            “Oh, I’m sorry,” the man chuckles in a strange, flat English accent that Mako doesn’t recognize. It’s ugly. “I guess I was stupid to think you’re Chinese.” He looks drunk. Possibly high, too.

            Mako doesn’t really know what to say to that, so he doesn’t say anything.

            The man grins awkwardly up at him and holds out a hand. “The name’s Kristoffer Holst.”

            “Jamison Fawkes,” Mako replies. He’s not really keen on shaking the guy’s hand, but he doesn’t want to draw any attention to himself, so he does it anyway.

            “So, are you excited about seeing _it_?” Holst asks, still grinning. “Better be worth it, you know? It’s a lot of money just to look at something. Not for me, you know, but for some people.”

            Ah, so he’s one of those people, Mako thinks to himself and resists the urge to roll his eyes. He’s a bragger.

            “I’d think so, yeah,” Mako comments, already bored with the guy.

            “Hey,” Holst says, leaning a little closer, waving for Mako to do the same, which Mako reluctantly does. “Ever seen one before, hm?”

            Mako shakes his head. “Didn’t think there were any.”

            “Oh, there’s plenty out there if you can pay,” Holst whispers, and his grin turns ugly. “This is just the first one that’s gotten out, you know? If you ask me, old Tucker leaked the video himself. Business has sky rocketed ever since it got out, and it’s not like they can do anything about it, right? There’s no law against holding these things in captivity, and as long as no one finds out about the _other_ side of the business, it’s all good.”

            “Other side?”

            “Yeah, well, Tucker hasn’t started doing that yet,” Holst breathes, looking very excited. “Says his fish won’t let anyone touch it, but he’s working on a way to counter that.”

            Mako doesn’t get it, and despite the mask, it must have read on his face, because Holst just grins wider at him, sniffing and picking at his nose.

            “Don’t you ever get tired of banging chicks?” he asks, his eyes growing wider. “Don’t you ever want to try something totally _different?_ ”

            There’s a great, powerful urge swelling in Mako’s body to grab the guy by his face and tug until it comes off, but he doesn’t. He just grunts and tries to expel the images of Holst trying to force himself on Jamie from his brain.

            “S’gonna take a while before this one’s ready, though,” Holst continues, apparently oblivious to Mako’s obvious disinterest. “Heard that the last guy who tried to get into the tank with it never left.”

            Now that cheers Mako up considerably, but he doesn’t have time to ask about any details, because the general murmur among the visitors is quieted by a woman in a tight, black pantsuit who comes into the middle of the room.

            “Ladies and gentlemen,” she says, smiling at them with bright red lips. “Welcome. I apologize for the wait, but we want to make sure that we provide you with an extraordinary experience today.”

            “They say that every time,” Holst whispers to Mako. “But it usually means that the fish was acting up and that they had to drug it.”

            “Drug it?”

            “Yeah, they’re pretty human-like, you know?” Holst breathes, “and it would be kinda awkward if it starts acting up in front of people who’s paid that much money to see it, right? So sometimes they drug it to make it more docile.”

            Mako nods, drawing a deep breath to swallow down his rage, which isn’t easy at all.

            “So, ladies and gentlemen, please empty your glasses and follow me,” the lady informs them, and as she turns, there’s an immediate noise of glasses being up down before a slight bustle break out in the crowd. Mako keeps at the back of the group, and to his annoyance, Holst stays there with him, as they slowly file through a door with the guards watching them closely.

            The next room they come into is dark except for some dimmed lights along the edge of the room. The excited murmur among the guests die down once the door closes behind them, and it feels like everyone are holding their breath. It feels like they’re waiting forever, and Mako impatiently shifts his weight as his heart rate increases again. Holst is stirring slightly beside him, gazing intently up at a large, bare wall. Mako is wondering what he’s looking for when the answer presents itself right in front of it.

            The group erupts in gasps as what everyone thought was a wall suddenly but slowly lights up to reveal that it’s actually the front of a massive water tank. There’s a surge towards the glass in the crowd, and people are almost stumbling over each other to get up and press their noses flat against it. Mako stays in the back—he’s tall enough to see over all their heads.

            For a moment, there’s nothing to see but water in the tank, but then a shadow appears at the very top, lazily circling above the visitors’ heads. Everyone, including Mako, looks up, and there’s a collective “Oooh” coming from the crowd as the mercreature drifts into view. The guards lining the room are even more alert now, scanning the crowd for anyone producing a hidden camera to take pictures or acting strange in anyway.

            Mako had been worried about getting singled out for acting strange, but it turns out that he didn’t have to worry about it at all, because his eyes are just as big as everyone else’s when he sees Jamie in the tank.

 

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, there's no more for now! But don't worry! The next chapter is already being written, so it should come out soon ^^
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter, and I'm would as always greatly appreciate your feedback via kudos or comments!
> 
> If you feel like you need to yell at me on several platforms, you can follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/drrtyrabbit) or [Tumblr](https://rabbitvswonderland.tumblr.com/)!


	3. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako has located Jamie, but how will he get close to him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! This is a long one! Welcome to chapter 2 of this lil' fic here^^
> 
> Please, read and (hopefully) enjoy!

*

 

Mako is pretty sure his heart has stopped dead in his chest. It’s Jamie. It’s Jamie, who Mako has thought to be dead for five years, gliding through the water with a dazed look on his face. Mako recognizes everything from the patters of light spots on his face and shoulders to the scar on his long tail, and there’s an immediate and powerful rush of warmth surging through his body at the sight. The urge to run up, smash the glass with his fists, or possibly Holst’s head, grab Jamie and simply run away with him is almost overwhelming, but Mako manages to stay in control.

            The idea is that he would just be in and out again after confirming that it really was Jamie in the tank, but Mako can’t make himself leave just yet. He hasn’t seen Jamie for five years, and he really just want to watch him for a little bit longer; Jamie’s movements are slow, languid, and not at all like the twitchy, excitable Jamie Mako knew. The drugs must be working well on him. He just seems to drift back and forth in the water with no real aim.

            “Don’t they have a keeper or a trainer?” Mako asks Holst without taking his eyes off Jamie. “Why do they need to use drugs?”

            “Guess this one isn’t cooperating as well as others have,” Holst replies with a shrug. “Had the same trainer for a while now, but I think Tucker’s getting impatient. It’s not working.”

            “How do you know all this?”

            “Oh, I know Tucker. Went to boarding school with him back in the day,” Holst explains. “He’s a prick, but what are you gonna do?”

            Mako grunts in reply. He doesn’t like to think about what methods Tucker and Song are using to try and get Jamie to comply, but he’s pleased to hear that it’s not working.

            “It’s something, isn’t it?” Holst murmurs next to Mako as they stare up at Jamie in the water. “Seen it three times now, and I don’t think I’ll get sick of it.”

            Mako just nods silently, and his heart skips a beat when Jamie glides past the glass again; their eyes meet for a second, and Mako feels like his heart might come bursting out of his chest, but Jamie doesn’t recognize him. His eyes seem strangely unfocused, and he just looks away again as he keeps swimming.

            “Yeah, see that hole it has right under the bellybutton?” Holst mutters, his voice a bit hoarser than it was before. “It gets real tight with the right kind of _persuasion_ , you know. Feels really fucking good, I can tell you. The last place I was at, they had these drugs that could get the fish go into heat. It milked three guys dry before it was satisfied. It was crazy, man. They shut it down when the fish died. Real shame, it was such a pretty thing. I can send you some pic—hey, where’re you going?”

            The fact that Mako hasn’t straight up murdered this guy yet is a fucking miracle, but that’s largely due to Mako walking away before his self-control ebbs away completely. He has seen what he need to anyway; it’s Jamie in the tank, and it doesn’t sound like he wants to be there. That’s more than enough information for Mako; it’s time to set the next step of his plan in motion.

            “Can we assist you, Sir?” the guards at the door ask him, not moving out of his way when he comes up to them.

            “Seen what I wanted to,” Mako grunts. “Expected a real mermaid like in the movies. Not this weird shit.”

            The guards exchange looks, but then step aside to let him through. Mako casts one last look over his shoulder at Jamie in the tank, still mindlessly floating around in circles, before leaving.

 

*

 

Mako is still shaken by the time he gets back to his apartment, and it takes a while before his hands stop trembling. Now that he’s alone with no creepy Holst by his side, he can allow himself to relax, and the impact of what he has experienced is starting to affect him; Jamie is actually alive, and there’s a chance that Mako will get to talk to him again, touch him again. A shudder of nausea shakes through him as he remembers Holst’s words about Jamie’s hole and how Tucker Peters was trying to “fix” his behavioral problems. Sedatives wouldn’t do the trick, because they would probably need the mercreature to be conscious and enjoying themselves at least a little for it to feel good for the human. Mako’s relieved that Jamie seems to be fighting it still, but it’s probably only a matter of time before they figure out some way to force Jamie not to fight it. Maybe those drugs that Holst talked about; the drugs that would force the creature to go into heat maybe? Mako shakes his head and swallows down the sick feeling in his gut. The mere idea of Jamie with someone else is uncomfortable, but the idea of Jamie being raped is just too much to handle. Mako has to force it out of his mind or he’s going to go crazy. And he can’t afford to go crazy right now. It’s time to set the next step of his plan in motion.

            There are a lot of people named Song in Beijing, but only a couple of handfuls of them are experts in animal care and/or marine biology. It makes everything easier for Mako, and he notes down their addresses. It probably won’t take more than a week or two’s stakeout to find out which one of them is the right person, and then… Mako almost feels sorry for the guy, because he probably had nothing to do with the capture itself. He’s most likely just a guy who does his job and collects his paycheck. Still, though, his job involves keeping someone locked up against their will, and even if the guy doesn’t really have anything to do with it all—maybe he just brings Jamie food or something—he’s still going to have to suffer the consequences.

            It’s 6am when Mako leaves the apartment the next morning, wrapping his scarf tightly around his neck and adjusting the paper mask over his nose and mouth. It’s not raining yet today, but the city is covered in a thick, grey and ice cold fog, which leaves a fine layer of moisture on the part of Mako’s face that’s exposed. It only takes a few minutes of being outside before Mako feels frozen to his core. Thankfully, though, he manages to hail a cab pretty quickly, and he drives to the address of the first Song he’s jotted down; Song Zhāng, 47 years old, trained marine biologist, single.

            Mako pays the cab driver extra to park across from the entrance to Song’s apartment building while Mako stays in the back with the picture of Song he pulled from the guy’s social media profile on his knees, waiting for the guy to exit the building. The drive is impatiently drumming his fingers on the wheel, humming what sounds like an improvised melody, and Mako is ready to tell him to shut up and sit the fuck still when the door to the building opens and a man who looks a lot like Song exits. He’s dressed in a suit, and doesn’t really look like he’s on his way to a job as mercreature keeper, but Mako needs to be sure, so he prods the driver and motions for him to follow Song, who has gotten into his car.

            Mako hardly even draws breath while they’re on Song’s tail. It would be way too easy if this was actually the right guy, and Mako is almost relieved 20 minutes later when Song turns into the parking structure that belongs to a big shipping company. He lets out a long breath and crosses Song’s name and address over on his list. One down, 17 to go.

            While it’s true that Mako was actually a bit relieved that the first Song on the list wasn’t the right Song, because it would have been too suspiciously easy, Mako gets increasingly frustrated as he works his way down the list, and none of the Songs are the right one. The Songs work in all kinds of places (some on boats, some in nautical museums, some in zoos, some in pet shops), but none of them work even close to the Peters’ estate. He goes over the list and his notes again and again, thinking that he has perhaps overlooked something, but there’s nothing odd anywhere, no stone he has left unturned. There’s nothing for Mako to do but to start over, and this time he’s going to be even more thorough. He rents a car so he doesn’t have to rely on cabs, and he sets out to watch each of the Songs on his list through the entire day from when they leave their homes to when they come home again at night. He even makes sure to watch them on a day that’s different than the first time he watched them, just to make sure that every day’s the same. His body aches and complains after three solid days sitting in a car with his gaze steadied on the exit of today’s Song’s workplace, waiting for him to leave, but Mako simply downs some painkillers to get the ache to go away. It’s not the only pills he has to take, though; knowing that Jamie is alive, knowing that there’s a chance Mako might see and touch him again has coaxed his system into working again, and Mako has had to supplement the painkillers with blockers to repress his rut. He should be taking double dozes, just to be sure, but Mako has to admit that it feels nice to know that his libido hasn’t dried out completely. Besides, he does need something to do while on his 12-hour stakeouts, and the car he’s rented has tinted windows…

            Mako tries really hard to keep his eyes open and watching the staff entrance to the zoo he’s parked outside. His hand is lazily rubbing his swollen dick through his pants, and images of Jamie’s face and form is swirling around in his head. He tries to imagine what it will feel like to finally have Jamie pressing up against him after five years apart, but he can’t. He almost can’t remember what Jamie even feels like, and if it wasn’t for the short video clips of Jamie goofing around in the lake water Mako has recorded on his phone, he probably wouldn’t even remember what Jamie sounds like. Fuck, does he even remember what Rua sounded like? Mako forgets about watching the entrance as he squeezes his eyes shut and strains his memory to try and dig out the sound of Rua’s voice. It had sounded a bit like Jamie’s, a bit raspy, but even more cheeky. Rua had been a brat and had tested Mako’s patience to its very limits, and Mako had often had to grab Rua by the tail, lifting him up so he was hanging upside down while Mako was telling him off. Rua’s eyes would grow inhumanely large, and Mako would forgive him on the spot. He would pinch Rua’s little nose and toss the giggling brat back into the water from where the kid would laugh and beg Mako to come swim with him.

            “Shit,” Mako mutters. He’s not hard anymore, and he has forgotten everything about being bored and horny. He grabs the little fang and clenches it in his fist until it digs into the palm of his hand. It hurts, and it’s probably going to bleed, but Mako doesn’t care. He knows there was nothing he could have done, but that doesn’t stop him from punishing himself even after five years.

            It’s not until he feels the warm drip of blood seep through his pants that Mako opens his eyes and releases the fang. It has dug almost half an inch into his palm, and it’s bleeding rather heavily, so Mako has to tear a strip of his shirt off to wrap it around his hand. As he does so, he glances over at the staff entrance to the zoo, and to his horror, Song’s car isn’t there anymore.

            “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Mako breathes as he turns the key and starts his car, twisting and turning his head to see if he can spot the car. It’s not in the parking lot, it’s not down the street, and it’s not up the—wait! That’s the one! Mako’s heart is firmly lodged in his throat as he pulls away from the curb to do a U-turn to follow the car. As he comes up a couple of cars behind it, he leans as much to the side as he can, and he manages to get a semi-decent view to the car’s license plate, and—Mako breathes a deep sigh of relief—it’s the right car. He curses quietly at himself for almost letting Song slip away and waste an entire day’s work.

            Unfortunately, Mako is cursing again a little later when Song simply goes home with no suspicious detours or errands on the way. This was the last Song on the list, and just like the others, this Song checks out perfectly, and there’s absolutely nothing that suggests that he should be affiliated in any way to Peters or mercreatures or anything like that. Mako leans his forehead against the wheel, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to figure what the hell he’s going to do now. He has run out of leads and clues; he has investigated any avenue he can think of, and short of hiring a private detective (which he can’t afford), there’s no other options for Mako. But giving up is not an option either. The thought of being so close to Jamie, and yet unable to get to him is sickening, and Mako can’t even stomach the thought of leaving Jamie in the hands of perverts like that Holst guy, and—Mako jerks in his seat and sits up straight. Holst!

            There’s a surge of adrenaline shooting Mako’s body, and his heart is pounding as he digs out his phone to do a search for “Kristoffer Holst”. It takes less than a minute for Mako to find him; there he is, the bastard, smugly grinning out at Mako from the picture of the board members of—well, well, that’s interesting. Holst is a board member of Starfish Media Group, which just happens to be owned by Peters. Holst did say that he and Peters were old friends, but Mako hadn’t actually thought that they were doing business together. This is almost too perfect, and Mako has to force himself to calm down and drive back to the apartment before he writes the email. After pondering for a while and re-writing the text at least a dozen times, Mako uses a new fake email to finally send Holst the following:

 

> To Kristoffer Holst,
> 
>  
> 
> You might not remember me, but I’m hoping you do. My name is Jamison Fawkes, and we met under some pretty peculiar circumstances some time ago. Firstly, I’d like to apologize for my abrupt departure that day. I hadn’t been feeling well that morning.
> 
>  
> 
> I’m writing to you, because I wasn’t completely honest with you. I do have prior experience in the field we discussed, and I’m contacting you now, because I think I can help your friend with the problem you mentioned. If you can help me contact him, I will make sure there’s something in it for you as well.
> 
>  
> 
> Let me know if you’re interested and if there’s somewhere we can talk safely.
> 
>  
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Jamison Fawkes

 

*

 

Mako jumps when the reply from Holst ticks in. He has been staring for his phone ever since he sent the email, and he has hardly even dared to sleep during the two days it has taken for Holst to reply. Even though he’s exhausted by now, his body sends out a fresh wave of adrenaline to kick start his brain when his phone dings, and he’s wide awake as he taps on the subject. It’s a short reply, but it’s all Mako needs.

 

> Hey Fawkes,
> 
>  
> 
> It’s hard to forget a guy that big, so yes, I do remember you.
> 
> I spoke to my friend, and he’s interested. I don’t think we should discuss this over email, though. If you meet us in the Park Hotel’s bar downtown at 8:30 tonight, my friend and I will be there to hear you out.
> 
>  
> 
>  See you.
> 
>  
> 
> Holst

 

It’s almost 6pm, and Mako is pretty sure he has never moved this fast in his life. It’s one thing getting to look somewhat respectable (he hasn’t left the apartment or showered in two full days), and it’s a whole other thing to reconstruct the lie he’s going to tell Peters and Holst this quickly. It was stupid of him not to do this earlier, but part of his probably didn’t think this would work. He’s paying for that now.

            Mako can’t deny that he’s pretty fucking nervous when he’s sitting in the cab, rehearsing his story in his head. It’s simple enough, and as long as it gets him in a room with Jamie for five minutes, the rest shouldn’t be a problem.

            The ushers at the hotel entrance look at him like he’s just dropped down from the moon, and even though Mako hates when people stare at him, he forgives them, because although they must be used to tall foreigners, Mako is a lot taller than most people in general, and he’s probably twice the height of the average Chinese person. The ushers let him pass without any fuss, but they still twist their heads to watch him as he goes inside and heads through the lobby to the bar.

            He quickly spots the red head of Holst, but as he makes his way over there, still rehearsing his story in his head, two men in black suits and ear pieces stand up and block his way. Mako only just manages to stop himself from reacting the way he usually would, which includes cracking open the men’s skulls, because he’s not supposed to be a retired syndicate goon. Holst smiles at him and gets up, waving his hands disarmingly in the air.

            “Ah, Fawkes! Sorry about that,” he says, coming up to pat the bodyguards on their shoulders. “Gotta take precautions. I hope you understand.”

            Mako eyes the bodyguards, and they eye him back, but he just nods and lets them pat him down.

            “Your phone, Sir,” one of them says, and Mako grudgingly hands it over.

            “Just a precaution,” Holst says, still grinning at him when the bodyguards finally let him pass. Holst gestures to the small table in the corner, and they both sit down. A waiter comes up to them to take their order (Holst orders a dirty martini, and Mako settles for a beer).

            “I thought your friend Peters was gonna be here, too,” Mako remarks once the waiter has left them with their drinks.

            “Well, he’s a busy guy,” Holst says, sipping his drink. “He sent me to find out the details. If it sounds interesting, you’ll get to meet the big guy himself. Well—he’s not as big as you, of course.” Holst grins again, and Mako is pleased to see how uncomfortable he is in Mako’s massive shadow.

            “Alright,” Mako grunts, taking a swig of his beer.

            “So what are they?” Holst asks, downing the rest of his drink and gesturing at the waiter to bring him a new one.

            “Like I said in my email,” Mako explains, “I have prior experience with these creatures. I’ve worked with several of them for people—in similar situations as your friend. There’s no word for it, but I have a way with them. I can make them do whatever I want. It takes a bit of time, but if you give me that time, I will show you.”

            Holst looks intensely at him. “Oh yeah? Who'd you work for?”

            Mako snorts and shakes his head. “If you think I’m about to break the confidentiality I have with my former employers, you’re a fool. I’m not that stupid, Holst. If I did that, what would stop me from breaking confidentiality for your friend?”

            Holst nods and grins. “Good answer. But that also presents us with a problem. How can my friend and I believe that you can do what you say you can if we can’t check up on you? What’s your experience? Marine biology?”

            “That doesn’t matter,” Mako grunts. “Give me five minutes alone with the fish, and I’ll make more progress than your current trainer whats-his-name has in years.”

            “Her.” 

            “Her?”

            “Our trainer,” Holst says. “It’s a woman. Cong Yáo. You’ve seen her, too. She did the introduction.”

            “Huh.” So that’s why he couldn’t find the trainer; it wasn’t a man named Song, but a woman named Cong. Mako makes a mental note of breaking his Triad contacts fingers next time he sees him.

            “You really think you could do a better job?” Holst asks him, and Mako nods.

            “Give me five minutes with the fish, and I’ll be able to get into the water with him unharmed,” he says. “Give me five weeks with it, and I’ll have I jumping through hoops or—anything else you want it to do.”

            Mako arches and eyebrow at Holst, and Holst buys it hook, line, and sinker. It takes two minutes before Holst is on the phone with Peter’s and another 10 minutes before they’re both sitting in Holst’s car on their way to the aquarium.

 

*

 

Tucker Peters is not what Mako had expected at all. To be honest, Mako isn’t sure what he had expected, but Peters is definitely not that. Since he has been at boarding school with Holst, he must be at least 30 years old, but he looks like he’s 12; he’s short, skinny, and desperately trying to appear manlier by growing the weakest, most patchy beard Mako has seen in a long time. Although he supposed be a big deal in the IT world (didn’t he sell some app for billions of dollars not so long ago?), he looks more like someone’s total dick of a little brother. The best part, though, is that despite his young appearance, Peters’ hairline is already pulling away from his forehead, and it gives him a weird and creepy vibe. He’s sitting on a stool by a bar that looks to serve nothing but energy drinks. On the wall behind him are several huge posters of semi naked cartoon girls with giant breasts and eyes in compromising positions. They all look very young despite their impressive bosoms. Mako has never been interested in breasts, and especially not cartoon ones.

            Peters doesn’t look up from his tablet when Mako and Holst first enter the room, and Mako gripped by the urge to grab him by the collar and tell him he’s being impolite. He doesn’t, though, and instead he lets Holst lead.

            “Hey, Tuck, buddy,” Holst says, grinning and sniffing (Mako pointedly refused when Holst offered him a line in the back of the car). “This is Fawkes, right? I told you about him over the phone. He’s apparently a miracle maker.”

            “Can you make it sit still while my clients fuck it?” Peters asks without looking up from his tablet, and Mako’s intense dislike of this guy just increases with 1000%.

            “I can make it do whatever you want it,” Mako replies without missing a beat, and Peters finally look up at him with a suspicious look on his childish face.

            “Is that so?” he asks, narrowing his light blue, watery eyes at Mako. “You can’t even get into the water right now without getting your dick ripped off.”

            “Give me five minutes alone with it and you’ll be able to scratch it behind the ear without losing a finger.”

            Peters scratches his weak chin and grunts. “What makes you better than the trainer I have now?”

            “I get the job done.”

            “How?”

            “Do you care? Do you want to be able to sell that fish hole in two months or not?”

            “Two months?” Holst breathes next to Peters. “Tuck, we could start selling it now! Start the buzz now, get a massive waiting list. Do you have any idea what people will pay to get an hour with a fucking mermaid?”

            “Shut up, Holst, you retard, of course I know,” Peters hisses savagely. “I’m not an idiot.” He directs his nasty gaze at Mako. “I want proof. Show me you can deliver and I’ll hire you right away at any salary you want.”

            “Okay,” Mako says, crossing his arms over his chest, because he has a strange feeling that Holst and Peters might see how hard his heart is hammering. “Let me see the fish.”

            Peters considers him a bit, then slides off the stool he’s been sitting on and gestures for Mako to follow him, which Mako does. They squeeze into an elevator and ride it all the way up to the top floor of the building. Peters is on his tablet all the way up, constantly tapping on the screen, but if Mako hadn’t been so hyper focused on the fact that he’s seeing Jamie in a bit, he would probably have been curious to know what Peters is doing.

            When they step out of the elevator, they step into a large, white-tiled room. It looks more like a locker room than anything else. There’s a bench and a wall of lockers. One of the lockers is occupied, and there’s a pair of high heels sitting outside it. In the far wall, there’s a giant window taking up most of the wall, and through it, Mako can see a woman standing by the edge of a large pool. He can’t see into the water, but she’s holding out something over the water as if trying to lure something to come up.

            “Yáo is with the fish right now,” Holst remarks. “It, uh—it likes to splash water at people, so you might wanna…” He nods towards a shelf with large rain coats on.

            Mako shakes his head, trying silently to make his pulse slow down. “I don’t need any of that. I just need some alone time with the fish.”

            “Why?” Peters asks him, looking up from his tablet.

            “I don’t reveal my business secrets,” Mako says. “But I’ll get the job done. You’ll see.”

            Peters wrinkles his nose at Mako in an ugly grimace; clearly he’s not used to being told no.

            “Call in your trainer,” Mako tells him, and Peters gestures at Holst who goes up to the window to knock at it. Just as he does, something in the water sends a giant water splash at the woman, making her slip and fall on the floor. She gets up, yelling something at the water, they can’t hear, but it doesn’t look pretty. Then she turns and sees Holst gesturing at her, and she leaves, coming through the door.

            “Fucking little cunt,” Mako hears her breathe before she puts on a rather forced smile at Holst and Peters.

            “So stubborn,” she says with a shrill laugh. “But we’re making progre—”

            “Yáo, this is Fawkes,” Peters unceremoniously cuts across her. “He’s here to take your job away if he can do what he says he can.”

            Yáo’s mouth drops open for a second before she composes herself and send Mako a nasty look.

            “Impossible,” she huffs. “That fish doesn’t listen to anyone. What makes him think he can do better than me?”

            “Beats me,” Holst grins at her, but she just snarls at him.

            “So what’s your method?” she asks Mako, hands on hips.

            “Like I would tell a competitor my methods,” Mako snorts.

            “Tucker, this guy’s a fraud!” Yáo hisses, turning to Peters. “I have 10 years’ experience with marine animals, and this guy can’t even—”

            “I don’t give a shit about your experience, Yáo,” Peters mutters without looking up at her. “You’re not getting the job done, and if this guy can do better than you, which shouldn’t be that fucking hard considering how shitty you’re doing, he’s getting your job.”

            Yáo doesn’t say anything to that, but just crosses her arms over his chest and glares at Mako.

            Mako ignores her and glances at the window instead. The water in the other room seems to have stilled.

            “Did you drug it?” he asks Yáo.

            “What?” Yáo splutters, turning bright pink. “What kind of—?”

            “Yáo, just answer the fucking questions,” Peters barks at her, rolling his eyes. “It’s not like it’s a secret that we use drugs to calm the fish down.”

            Yáo huffs, then glares at Mako as she shakes her head. “Not today.”

            “Good,” Mako says evenly, “then I suggest that you go drink a cocktail or something like that and let me do my job. If I catch any of you watching me, in person or on surveillance, I walk, and I’ll make sure that that fish will never follow any orders ever.”

            Yáo grimaces at him, Peters looks disinterested, and Holst is too busy looking at the way Yáo’s breasts are squeezed into the wetsuit she’s wearing.

            “Come on,” Peters grunts and leads the group into the elevator, apparently not caring that Yáo is leaving wet footprints behind her. Once the door has closed and they have left the floor, Mako draws a deep, shuddering breath. Okay. This is fine. This is exactly what needed to happen. Now he just needs to make Jamie understand.

            Mako takes off all his clothes except his briefs, folding it all and placing it on the bench. Then he walks over and pushes the door to the aquarium room open. It’s heavy, and it closes with a whooshing noise behind him. The water is still calm, which suggests that Jamie is somewhere deep in the tank and probably can’t see him. Mako considers his options for a moment, but he finally decides that fuck it, it’s all or nothing now, and he dives right into the tank, head first.

            The water isn’t as cold as it could have been, but it’s still cold enough to send a shock through Mako’s body, and for a second or two, he’s completely paralyzed. But then he manages to open his eyes, and he swirls around in the water to try and spot Jamie. He can’t see anything, though, and he kicks his legs to get up to the surface for air.

            But getting up to get air isn’t going to be as easy as Mako had thought, because something (Jamie, of course) grabs his ankle and tugs him down. Mako yelps in surprise and accidentally swallows a large gulp of water. His lungs instantly start burning, and he feverishly kicks his legs, trying to get Jamie off him. Jamie's strong hand is squeezing his ankle painfully hard, and Mako is just about to panic when his left foot finally collides with something that has to be Jamie’s face, because the grip is instantly loosened. Mako kicks and flaps his arms to get up for air as fast as possible, and this time his face breaks the surface.

            Gasping and coughing, Mako manages to splash his way over to the edge, and he just has time to turn around and lean against it when Jamie shoots out of the water, right in front of him. His face is twisted in savage rage, and his sharp teeth are bared as he grabs Mako by the shoulder, trying to shove him under again, but Mako pushes him hard in the chest and rasps, “It’s me, you idiot! It’s Mako.”

            “Mako?” Jamie’s face changes in a single breath, and he just stares up at Mako with his large amber eyes.

            “Yeah,” Mako whispers, and it’s not until now that it really hits him; it’s Jamie right there in front of him, _his_ Jamie. His Jamie whom he hasn’t seen in five years, and he reaches out to cup Jamie’s cheek, stroking a thumb over the sharp cheekbone.

            “It’s me, Jamie.”

            Jamie grabs his wrist, but this time he clings to it, turning his face and rubbing it against Mako’s large palm while squeezing his eyes shut.

            “Mako?” he breathes, peering up at Mako from between Mako’s fingers.

            “Yeah.”

            “Mako!” Jamie lurches himself at Mako, curling his one arm around Mako’s neck and kissing every inch of Mako’s face he can reach. Mako lets him and just wraps both arms around Jamie’s skinny waist, hugging him tight and finally, after five whole years, feeling almost whole again.

 

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for now! There will be a new chapter soon~!
> 
> I hope you liked this one! Please let me know what you thought in the comments *3*
> 
> And if you're of that disposition, you can follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/drrtyrabbit) or [Tumblr](https://rabbitvswonderland.tumblr.com/)!


	4. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jamie and Mako are finally reunited! So, what happens now? And what happened to Rua?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had actually promised myself that this was just gonna be a short, smutty chapter, but whaddya know!? It turned out to be a long chapter once again ^^;;
> 
> Anyway, someone asked me about the rape tags on this fic, worried about explicit depictions of rape, and I answered [here](https://rabbitvswonderland.tumblr.com/post/158855512198/re-the-rape-tags-in-cake-by-the-ocean). Be aware of spoilers, though!
> 
> Now, enjoy the chapter!

*

 

Jamie isn’t crying, because he doesn’t have tear ducts, but he trembles like he’s crying. He’s all over Mako, curling and wriggling around him, and his webbed fingers quickly find their way into Mako’s wet hair, twisting and tugging at it as if to test if it’s real. At the same time, Jamie is whimpering and kissing and nibbling at any piece of bare skin he can reach. It’s pretty overwhelming, just like everything about Jamie is, and Mako just closes his eyes and allows himself to enjoy it for a moment. He’s surrounded by old familiar sensations, smells, and tastes, and even though he downed half a bottle of blockers before he left the apartment, he can feel the effect Jamie’s presence is having on his body; it’s like he can feel all his hormones boiling and bubbling right under the surface of his skin, and they’re just waiting for their first chance to burst forth and kick his most powerful rut yet into full force.

            “My Mako,” Jamie whispers against Mako’s cheek, pressing up against Mako’s chest. “My Mako’s found me.”

            Something tightens in Mako’s chest, and he strokes his hands down Jamie’s back, gently rubbing along the dorsal fin that runs from Jamie’s neck and all the way down his human and fish body. He allows himself to relax and just enjoy Jamie for another 30 seconds despite the many questions that are burning a hole in his chest. There’s no time for questions now.

            “Yeah, I found you,” Mako murmurs as he nuzzles his nose and lips against Jamie’s wet, slick cheek. A wave of old emotions are washing over him, and reminding himself that their time is extremely limited is the only thing he can do to keep himself from losing control over the situation completely. It doesn’t help that he can feel Jamie’s arousal bulging out and poking his gut.

            “Listen, Jamie,” he says, hating that he has to push Jamie away a little so he can look him in the eye. “We don’t have much time here.”

            “Who’s looking after Rua?” Jamie asks, blinking up at Mako. “Is Rua here, too?”

            Something breaks inside Mako, and for a moment he has no idea what to say. He had thought Jamie would know. He had thought that maybe Jamie could shed some more light on what had happened, but it seems like Jamie is just as clueless as he is. Jamie’s eyes dart to the necklace around Mako’s neck and the little fang in it. The bright, hopeful look on his face changes; it turns nervous and fearful.

            “Where’s Rua, Mako?” he asks, reaching out to touch the fang.

            Mako swallows and pulls away a bit. “Jamie, please,” he says, feeling his throat tighten up, “people will be back here any minute, okay. I promise I will tell you everything later, but right now, just follow my lead, okay? Just—pretend you don’t know me, but do everything I say, okay? I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again, but just do this, okay? I have a plan.”

            Jamie opens his mouth, and looks like he’s about to say something, but nothing comes out. He doesn’t look convinced, and his eyes keep darting to the fang around Mako’s neck.

            “Jamie, please,” Mako begs him, stroking over Jamie’s wet hair. “Trust me, okay?”

            Jamie chews in his bottom lip for a moment, but he ultimately nods.

            “Okay, good,” Mako says and kisses Jamie’s cheek. “Just stay right below the surface and listen. And just do what I say, okay?”

            “Right,” Jamie replies with a nod, but before he sinks back under, he come close and rubs his cheek against Mako’s stubbled chin. Mako then watches him glide back into the water, diving down to the bottom of the water tank before hovering right below the surface. Somewhere inside the building, Mako can hear the elevator ding, and he crawls out of the water, and he’s combing his hair with his fingers and tying it back into its bun as Peters, Holst, and Yáo come through the door. Yáo has changed into her black pantsuit, and she would probably be glaring at him if she wasn’t busy looking shocked. Holst and Peters look equally shocked.

            “You were in the water with it?!” Yáo blurts out, apparently forgetting about her cool, collected image. “How are you still in one piece?”

            “Easy when you know how,” Mako says with a shrug. “I told you I’d deliver.”

            “How do I know this isn’t just some trick?” Peters asks, sounding a lot more interested than he did before.

            “Watch this,” Mako says, and he kneels down next to the water, holding out a hand to gesture to Jamie to come close. Jamie does as he’s told, and he emerges from the water right by the edge where Mako is standing. Mako carefully lowers his hand—acting as if Jamie might lash out at him at any second—to gently stroke over Jamie’s hair. Jamie lets him, and even closes his eyes like he’s enjoying it.

            All three spectators stare at him and Jamie with dropped jaws. Even Peters isn’t able to hide his astonishment.

            “How—?” Holst begins, but Mako just shakes his head and gets up again. Jamie ducks back under the water and stays there, watching Mako closely.

            “It doesn’t matter, does it?” Mako grunts. “The important thing is that I did what I said I would, but I can deliver on everything else, too.”

            Peters just stares at him for a moment, then looks back down at his tablet as he says, “Yáo, you’re fired. Hand over your keycards in the lobby when you leave, which will be within the next 10 minutes.”

            “ _But—!”_ Yáo begins, and Mako would probably feel sorry for her if he hadn’t witnessed her earlier yelling at Jamie. Working for a sick fuck like Peters, Mako wouldn’t be surprised if cussing out Jamie was the most innocent thing Yáo had done, and he fully intends to inspect Jamie for scars and bruises when he gets the chance.

            “Fawkes, when can you start? Can you start now?” Peters cuts across Yáo, looking up from his tablet and walking up to Mako. “How much am I going to have to pay you to make this fish ready for my clients?”

            Mako thinks for a moment—from the corner of his eye, he can see Yáo turn bright pink and turn on her heel and leave—then says, “Two million dollars.”

            “Whoa, _two_ mill?” Holst interjects. “Fawkes, uh, that’s a lot of money, buddy.”

            “It’s nothing compared to what you could make off this,” Mako says with a shrug. “Give me one million now. Save the last million to when I’ve delivered on my promises.”

            Peters considers him. “1,5.”

            “Two,” Mako says. “And then I’ll teach you how to breed more of them.”

            “You—you know how to _breed_ them?” Holst’s eyes might as well have turned into dollar signs. “Just—make more of them? Just like that?”

            “Just like that,” Mako hums with a nod. Even though he’s lying through his teeth, he still feels like the biggest asshole scumbag on the face of the earth, and he’s resisting the urge to clutch Rua’s fang.

            “Tuck, you realize the prospects in this, right?” Holst murmurs to Peters, and Peters nods, his gaze locked on Mako.

            “One million now,” he says slowly as if testing how the words taste. “And one million once you deliver on taming the fish and teaching my staff to breed them.”

            “Nothing more, nothing less.”

            “Deal.” Peters sticks his hand out, and Mako feels like he might vomit as he takes it and shakes it.

            “But I need to be alone with the fish,” Mako says, squeezing Peters’ hand just hard enough to feel a little uncomfortable. “If you spy on me or my methods in any way, you’ll regret it.”

            For the first time since they’ve met, the smug sneer is completely absent from Peters’ face, and it’s extremely satisfying.

            “Of course,” Peters says, voice slightly hoarse, and Mako can feel Peters’ muscles twitching as he’s subtly trying to pull his hand away. But Mako won’t let him do that yet.

            “I will show you my progress at the end of every week,” Mako tells, “but other than that, you and your staff leave me alone and provide me with whatever I ask.”

            Peters just nods, and Mako offers him a smile as he finally lets go of Peter’s hand. There’s a clear imprint of Mako’s large fingers on Peters’ slender hand, and Mako’s smile widens a bit when Peters turns away, rubbing his hand.

            “Holst, get Fawkes a keycard and whatever else he needs,” Peters says as he walks away, still rubbing his hand. Holst is at his heels, already blabbering on about much money they’re going to make and how long the waitlist will be.

            Mako glances at Jamie in the water; Jamie doesn’t look very happy at all, but Mako offers him a reassuring smile before he follows Peters and Holst.

 

*

 

It’s so late by the time Mako gets his keycard (Holst had insisted on cornering Mako to ask him if he could make Jamie do this or that) that Mako can’t see Jamie again until the following morning. Peters only books showings of Jamie every Friday evening, so Mako potentially has four full days alone with Jamie before they’ll get interrupted by a showing. Mako shows up at the aquarium very early the next morning, ordering two very confused staff members to instantly black out the large windows to make sure that no one can spy on him. He also makes sure to disconnect all the cameras inside the pool room, because he doesn’t trust Peters even for a second to keep his promise. Once that is done, and once the windows have been blacked out and the two staff guys have left, looking very perplexed, Mako finally turns to the water. They hadn’t been able to find him a wetsuit that fit, but Mako had told them that it was no hurry. The truth is that Mako doesn’t intent to ever wear a wetsuit when swimming with Jamie, but he might to wear one anyway, just to pretend.

            Mako sits down by the edge of the pool, and Jamie immediately comes up to the surface.

            “Hey,” Mako says softly, stroking his fingers through Jamie’s wet hair. It’s a lot lighter now that Jamie has been living in algae free waters for so long, and Mako twirls a lock of it between his fingers.

            “Get in here, mate,” Jamie says with a grin, grabbing Mako’s wrist and gently tugging at it.

            Mako frowns. “How did you learn to talk like that?”

            “There was a man here before the angry lady,” Jamie explains, still tugging at Mako’s wrist. “He talked like this. He hated when I did it too, so I bit his fingers off and he squealed like a pig.”

            “Huh.” Mako can’t help but smile a bit even it’s still weird to hear Jamie talk like this. He sounded strangely Australian before, but it’s even more pronounced now.

            “C’mon, Mako,” Jamie says again, tugging harder at Mako’s wrist this time. “I wanna root with ya.”

            “Root?”

            “ _Y’know_ ,” Jamie grins. “Man taught me that word, too. Said he wanted it, but he never got it, did he? Got mad about the fingers.”

            “Wait,” Mako says and digs into his pocket to find the small bottle of pills he’s brought. He takes two out and holds them out to Jamie. “Take these. I don’t know if they’ll help, but I’m hoping they will.”

            “What’re they?” Jamie asks, peering curiously at the pills.

            “They’re to make sure you don’t go into heat,” Mako explains, watching as Jamie takes the pills and swallows them down. “It would be bad if you went into heat right now. These people want to do terrible things to you, but I’m not going to let them.”

            “Why’d you say you’d help them?” Jamie asks as he watches Mako get undressed.

            “I lied,” Mako says, tugging his shirt over his head and tossing it on the floor. “I need to buy us some time while I figure out how to get you out of here.”

            “You also said you’d—make more,” Jamie says, chewing his bottom lip as Mako kicks off his pants and boxers.

            “I was lying, Jamie,” Mako explains with a sigh, still feeling like the scum of the earth for even saying these terrible things aloud. He sits on the edge of the pool before carefully sliding into the water. “I want them to trust me. Otherwise you’re never getting out of here.”

            Jamie nods slowly and lets Mako pull him close.

            “Where’s Rua?” he asks, his webbed hand sliding up Mako’s chest to touch the little fang. Mako swallows and covers Jamie’s hand with his own.

            “Rua’s not here anymore,” he says quietly, squeezing Jamie’s hand. He had expected Jamie to ask what this means, but Jamie doesn’t; Jamie just looks at his hand in Mako’s before lowering his head a bit and closing his eyes. It’s almost like the water starts vibrating around them, and Mako is just about to get worried when Jamie draws a deep breath and lifts his head to look at Mako again.

            “What happened?” he whispers, gazing at Mako with his inhumanly large eyes.

            Mako shakes his head and licks his lips. “I don’t know. I came back from the city, and all I find is you gone and—and Rua is washed up on the shore. He, uh,” Mako’s throat is getting tighter and tighter, and speaking is painful, “there was a wound on his head. It looked bad. He was unconscious when I found, and, uh—he just never woke up again.”

            Jamie’s face changes as Mako recounts what happened; his bushy eyebrows, which are almost always raised in curiosity, slowly sink down until they cast a dark shadow over his eyes. Mako has only seen Jamie truly angry a handful of times, and it never fails to send chills down his spine.

            “What happened, Jamie? All I found was tire tracks and a felled tree,” Mako asks Jamie, clutching Jamie’s smaller hand even harder as if that’s somehow going to ease the unspeakable pain of losing a child. Mako doesn’t know if Jamie can feel it the same way that he can, but judging by the look on Jamie’s face, it definitely upsets him.

            “We was playin’,” Jamie says quietly, slowly directing his gaze from Mako’s face to Mako’s hand. He easily opens Mako’s fist with his hand to stare at Rua’s little fang, lying there on his own open palm. “Rua was hidin’ in the lake, and I was up the river. I pretend I doesn’t know where he is. Suddenly there’s big cars and big people all over. I call to Rua, but not in human speak. I don’t want them to know about him. I ain’t seein’ or hearin’ him, and they cut down a tree to block the river so I can’t get out. I tried to bite and fight them, but they has nets and stick me with somethin’ that makes me fall asleep. And then I wake up here.”

            There’s something ugly and hateful permeating Mako’s insides, and he can see it happening in his mind’s eyes as Jamie talks; Jamie had called Rua to him, and Rua had been going up the river just as the tree had been cut down. It had probably hit him or knocked him into a rock. The people who had captured Jamie had never even seen Rua or known that he was there. They had only wanted Jamie, and when they had captured him, they left, leaving Rua to die. The only question left is how they had known about Jamie in the first place, but Mako honestly doesn’t care about that. The only thing he cares about is getting Jamie as far away from these people as he possible can. But not until he has exacted his revenge, and it will be the ugliest and most painful revenge he can think of.

            “I’ll kill them,” he breathes, and he actually has to take a couple of deep breaths to keep himself from not just climb out of the water, find Peters and force feed him his own testicles. That wouldn’t get Jamie out of here, and getting Jamie out of here has to be first priority even if Mako’s fingers are itching to get a hold of Peters, Holst, Yáo, and everyone else who might have had a hand in this.

            “Kill ‘em good for me, Mako,” Jamie whispers, sliding closer and curling his arm around Mako’s neck. “Rip ‘em to shreds for me.”

            “I promise,” Mako breathes, and he slides his hands down to Jamie’s lower back, pressing against him.

            Jamie hadn’t known what kissing was or how to do it when Mako first met him, but Mako had taught him. It had taken weeks, and Mako’s lips had been in pretty bad shape thanks to Jamie’s sharp teeth, but eventually Jamie had gotten the hang of it, and he had started enjoying it a lot. Judging from the way Jamie is purring against Mako’s lips now, Jamie still enjoys kissing, and he certainly hasn’t forgotten how to do it. His lips still taste the same, and the rush of memories that flood Mako’s mind only makes him dig his fingers harder into Jamie’s scales. Jamie whines softly and bucks up against Mako’s gut, and Mako can feel the bulge of his arousal. He knows, he fucking knows that they shouldn’t be doing this. Betting on human omega blockers to work on a mercreature is risky enough, but betting on them to work on a mercreature that’s about to get fucked by its bonded alpha? That’s straight up moronic. But Mako has been dreaming of this for five years, thinking that he would never get to experience it again, and there’s no way he could stop himself. Especially not when Jamie is wriggling and grinding his swelling cock against his gut.

            “Has anyone touched you?” Mako breathes, turning in the water to press Jamie up against the edge of the pool. “Has anyone touched you here?” He reaches down under the water, rubbing his large hand over the two slits below Jamie’s bellybutton. Jamie’s cock is already sliding out of the top slit, and Mako rub over it, making Jamie tremble from head to tail.

            “No,” Jamie replies, shaking his head and trying to rub himself harder against Mako’s palm. “They tried, but I didn’t let ‘em.”

            “Good,” Mako whispers, curling his hand around the slick length to squeeze it. “No one touches you here unless you want them to, right?”

            “Right,” Jamie half-whines, twitching in the water. “Want no one but you to touch me.”

            Mako groans softly in reply and squeezes around Jamie’s cock again. It’s roughly the same size as a human penis, but the texture of the skin is different; it’s not really visible, but upon touching it, Mako can feel the ridges that run from the base and all the way to the tip. Mako had actually sat down and read up on the subject of mercreature anatomy when he had first given up and resigned to the fact that he just really liked having sex with this particular mercreature. He had wanted to at least know what he was dealing with, and he had discovered that unless a powerful alpha was present, mercreatures need to have several orgasms to go into heat. Their ridged penises and rippling muscles around their breeding holes had been designed to give maximum pleasure to their partners, and thus ensuring heat and procreation.

            Procreation is the last thing on Mako’s mind right now, though; all he wants is to feel a little bit like he felt before this nightmare started, when it was just him and Jamie at the lake, being idiots, and where Mako would spend so much time in the water, he almost dissolved.

            “I thought you were dead,” Mako breathes as he squeezes around Jamie’s cock again, slowly stroking the slick shaft. “I missed you so much. I thought I was going to be alone for the rest of my life.”

            “”You—you didn’t find someone else?” Jamie asks, clinging to Mako’s shoulders as he shoves his cock into Mako’s fist. “Bet you could’ve—”

            “I don’t _want_ anyone else,” Mako growls, using his free hand to turn Jamie’s head so he can nibble along Jamie’s jawline. “It’s you or no one.”

            Jamie gasps and bucks up against Mako’s gut, and Mako can feel him swelling even more in his fist. Mako’s own cock feels like it’s about to explode, and so far, the only attention it’s gotten is when Jamie’s tail accidentally brushes against it.

            “Mako,” Jamie half-whines with an almost pain expression on his flushed face. “C’mon. I want more.”

            Mako grunts in reply and reaches under the water with his free hand. He finds Jamie’s hole. The lips around it are swollen, and he pushes two fingers through the mucus leaking from it. Jamie arches and lets out a series of soft clicking noises, and Mako feels his maddening muscles clamp down around his digits. Mako’s dick jerks hard, straining against nothing but water, and it’s so, so tempting to replace his fingers with it…

            “More!” Jamie breathes, greedily squeezing around Mako’s fingers even as he curls them to rub them against that sensitive spot inside Jamie. “I want more, Mako.”

            That’s all the encouragement Mako needs; he withdraws his fingers and instead grabs his dick, pressing closer so he can push the head against Jamie’s hole. He can feel the muscles stretch to accommodate him as he pushes inside, and fuck, it feels amazing. Mako has to let go of everything with both hands so he can grab the edge of the pool and keep himself from sinking down. Jamie is pinned between Mako’s gut and the edge of the pool, but he doesn’t seem to mind at all; he moans, clicks, purrs Mako’s name while squirming around him, and Mako can feel every movement around his cock.

            “Shit,” Mako whispers, pressing his lips to Jamie’s forehead, and grips the edge tighter to use it as leverage to thrust his dick as deep into Jamie as it will go. It feels so good, so familiar, and Mako can already feel his climax pooling somewhere deep in his gut. He’s not going to last very long at all, and he wants to make the most of it before it’s over, so he speeds up, panting and grunting into Jamie’s hair as he fucks faster and faster into Jamie. He has abandoned Jamie’s cock, but his belly is pressing and rubbing up against it, and it seems to do the trick for Jamie, because his breathing speeds up to the point where he’s almost gasping for breath like a fish on land. His muscles are constantly clamping and unclamping around Mako’s cock, and Mako can feel his knot swell up. It pulls at Jamie every time Mako’s dick slides out of him, and it’s only a matter of time before…

            “ _Fuck_ ,” Mako groans as several things happen at once; Jamie curls around him with a shuddering whine and buries his teeth on Mako’s shoulder, his cock jerks up against Mako’s belly and releases a cloud of come into the water. At the same time, his muscles clamp down so tight around Mako’s swollen knot that it’s stuck, which sends an electric surge of pleasure through Mako, and his cock jerks inside Jamie before pumping him so full of Mako’s spunk that Mako can feel Jamie’s belly bulge from it.

            There’s absolutely nothing that matters right now; Peters and Holst don’t even exist right now. The only thing that even remotely matters is Jamie’s twitching body in his arms, and that’s it. They’re stuck together for a while like this, just holding each other, and the only time they move is when Jamie needs to go under water. Mako has no choice but to follow him, and part of him wishes that they could just stay down here under water where everything is quiet and unreal.

 

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you liked the chapter *3*
> 
> The next chapter will be up at some point during the week. How will Mako and Jamie escape the human waste pile a.k.a. Peters? And how did Peters even know where to find Jamie in the first place?? :V
> 
> Come bug me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/drrtyrabbit) or [Tumblr](https://rabbitvswonderland.tumblr.com/)!


	5. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jamie and Mako are finally reunited, but now it's a question on how they're going to get out of there in one piece. How long can Mako keep up the lie before someone suspects him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, friends, and welcome to the last chapter of this fic! Yep, this is it (apart from the epilogue ofc)!
> 
> Things are getting intense now, and it's shit or get off the pot at this point.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

*

Mako had lied to Jamie when he had told him that he had a plan. Mako doesn’t have a plan save for the burning desire to hurt Peters and Holst as much as he possibly can before ending both their miserable existences. The main reason Mako doesn’t just grab Jamie, throws him over his shoulder and walk out is that it would likely not end very well. A man like Peters will not only have a small army of security at his disposal, but he most likely has the phone numbers of very powerful people at his fingertips, too. The only way to do what Peters does so freely is if you have dirt on the people in charge. So Mako has to actually think up an escape plan, and that’s not easy. Even though Mako has been allowed to disconnect the surveillance cameras in the pool room itself, there’s still cameras, movement sensors and other shit everywhere in the building, and it would take an act of divine interference to get past them all without getting detected. If only Mako knew some tech savvy kid who could hack the security system like they do in the movies, but he doesn’t; Mako is on his own on this one. There’s Jamie, too, of course, but Jamie is even more useless than Mako; sure, Jamie has a lot of valuable knowledge about the people working in the building, the different trainers he’s had, Peters and Holst themselves, because Jamie has been clever enough to never let them think he’s anything more than a dumb fish (they know he speaks, but only like a parrot speaks that they can teach phrases and words). Mako is actually surprised when he learns this—he had no idea that Jamie could be that shrewd—and he feels a little guilty for not realizing just how smart Jamie actually is.

            That’s their one secret weapon; no one in the building supposedly knows just how smart Jamie is. They expect him to act like an animal, and Jamie has never given them a reason to think anything else. It’s all just a question of how Mako and Jamie are going to use it against them. And it’s not easy to figure that out while pretending to train Jamie. Mako had promised Peters results at the end of every week, so Mako and Jamie come up with various small tricks to show Peters every Friday morning; jumping through a hoop, roll around in the water, say “Gong xi fa cai” for Chinese New Year, and other minor tricks. Peters is impressed, but he’s getting impatient, too. Mako deeply regrets having mentioned breeding, because he knows it will only be a matter of time before Peters will want to know _how_ and will want Mako to demonstrate it. He will want to watch Mako do _things_ to Jamie, and while Mako loves doing _things_ to Jamie, he doesn’t ever want to do them in front of anyone, and especially not a human cumrag like Peters.

            “It’s been 6 weeks, Fawkes,” Peters remarks one Friday morning after Mako has shown him how Jamie can balance a ball on his nose—it’s deeply humiliating, and Mako hates every second of it. “You said you could breed on it in two months. That’s two weeks from now. I have 200 people on the waiting list already, so one of these fish isn’t gonna be enough.”

            “Things take time,” Mako says, offering Jamie an apologetic look before turning around to face Peters. “I mean, if you just want a drugged up dick sleeve to offer your clients, then by all means, drug up the fish and open your doors right away. Of course, your fish is gonna be like every other fish your clients have fucked, but I’m sure that’s fine, right?”

            Peters just glares at Mako.

            “If you want it to actually react to your touch, to tell you how much it likes it, you’re gonna have to let me do my job in peace,” Mako grunts, turning away from Peters and pretending to take some notes. He can hear Peters behind him, and he wonders whether or not Peters is going to say something. He’s an extremely powerful person, and he could probably have Mako murdered right here, right now, if he wanted to and get away with it. But Peters also needs him, and perhaps Mako has been abusing that fact a bit too much. He probably should have been sucking up to Peters, but Mako just can’t bring himself to be nice to the person who’s responsible for his kid’s death. Peters definitely doesn’t like him at all either, and it wouldn’t surprise if Peters actually has a plan to get rid of Mako once Mako’s job is done. Thankfully, Mako is an old stager in the murdering and backstabbing business, and he’s pretty sure he will see Peters coming from a mile away. Mako is still waiting for Peters to say something, but eventually Peters just huffs and leaves, probably with his nose pressed against his tablet screen as usual.

            Mako sighs and rubs over his face once Peters has left them alone, and Jamie comes up to the edge of the pool, the pink ball still clutches in his hand.

            “What’s wrong, mate?” Jamie asks (Mako had thought the “mate” had been severely annoying at first, but Jamie couldn’t seem to stop, and eventually Mako had actually started secretly liking it), and he tosses the ball to Mako, who catches it with one and hand tosses it back.

            “We need a plan, right now,” Mako grunts, catching the ball again as Jamie throws it back to him. “I can’t buy us much more time. Pretty soon, that dickweed is going to want to see results, and if I don’t give them to him…” He tosses the ball.

            “Thought you was gonna kill him,” Jamie asks, swimming backwards a bit so he can whack the ball with his tail. Mako catches it.

            “I am,” Mako sighs, passing the ball to Jamie. “But I can’t just—”

            “Ain’t that bloody difficult,” Jamie argues. “Seen ya snap necks with one hand. Why don’t ya just snap his neck?”

            “It’s not that easy,” Mako huffs. “He’s always surrounded by bodyguards.”

            “Then kill ‘em, too.” Jamie throws the ball to Mako.

            “And by the time I'm done with that, the noise will have alerted every security guard in the building,” Mako grunts.

            “Then what?”

            “I don’t know.”

            “Think of somethin’!”

            “I’m fucking trying!” Mako barks and he tosses the ball so hard that it slips through Jamie’s slimy hand and instead smacks him right in the face.

            “Shit, Jamie, I’m sorry!” Mako calls, but Jamie has already turned and dived under and out of sight.

            “Jamie?”

            Something very cold coils in Mako’s gut, and he turns to see Peters standing there with a confused look on his face.

            “You _named_ it?”

            Mako swallows and doesn’t reply. His brain is racing a million miles a second to figure out how he’s going to get out of this one.

            “I don’t like that name. It’s a boy’s name. My clients aren’t fags. They don’t want to fuck a boy fish. Name it something else.”

            Peters pushes past Mako to walk to the edge of the pool and look into the water.

            “It’s got a hole, doesn’t it?” he says more to himself than anyone else. “Males don’t have holes like that.”

            “They don’t have genders,” Mako tells him, turning to watch.

            “I really don’t give a fuck,” Peters mutters, still looking into the water. “This one is a female.”

            “What are you doing here?” Mako asks him, fingers itching to wrap themselves around Peters neck.

            “It’s my place,” Peters says, taking half a step back when Jamie emerges a few feet from him. “I can come and go as I fucking please, fatass.”

            “All aloooone,” Jamie purrs, and a wide grin spreads on his face as he floats in front of Peters. “So alooooone.”

            “What?” Peters turns his head to briefly look at Mako over his shoulder. “Is it talking? Did you teach it that?”

            “No,” Mako replies, still moving closer up behind Peters. “No, he’s always been able to do that.”

            “Lookit, he’s all alone, Mako,” Jamie sing-songs, stretching out invitingly before Peters. “No one to take care of him.”

            “What does it mean?” Peters turns his head to look at Mako again, an almost manic look of glee on his face. “Why is it calling you Mako? Did you teach it petnames?”

            “Oh no,” Mako hums, and he puts a hand on Peters’ back. “No, Mako’s my real name.”

            Peters frowns, and the look of glee fades from his face.

            “I used a fake name to get this job,” Mako goes on as Peters turns increasingly ashen, “and I’ve been plotting my revenge ever since.”

            “Revenge?” Peters’ face is chalk white by now.

            “Yes,” Mako hums. “See, I used to live by a lake, and I was happy there until someone came by and kidnapped Jamie and killed our son.”

            Peters croaks when Mako’s hand closes around his throat, and he splutters and claws at Mako’s wrist, but it doesn’t help him. Fire is coursing through Mako’s veins as he feels Peters’ pulse drumming against his fingers, and he squeezes harder, slowly lifting Peters off the floor and letting him dangle over the water. Jamie is circling under him, clicking and laughing excitedly.

            “I didn’t—it wasn’t me!” Peters coughs, wriggling and kicking his legs. “It was Holst! He found the fish. He—h-he was the one who came to me! I just provided the money! It was all his idea!”

            Mako had thought he had seen too much in his life to be surprised, but this actually surprises him; Holst has always seemed a bit like a doofus, and even now it’s hard for Mako to imagine him being capable of any kind of scheming or planning. Holst always came off like one of those leech people; someone who isn’t clever or good-looking enough themselves to be successful, so they befriend and suck up to more successful people to catch some of their shine. And maybe Holst still is one of those people, but he’s not as stupid as Mako thought he was. That irritates Mako more than anything else, and he takes it out on Peters.

            “Did you imprison Jamie and had people pay you money to rape him?” Mako growls, spurred on by Jamie’s cackling.

            “W-well, yes, but—” Peters begins, but Mako just shakes his head.

            “Then you’re guilty,” he snarls, and he meets Jamie’s eyes for a second. The desire to end Peters’ life right here is so immense, but the look in Jamie’s eyes is even more powerful. Besides, Mako fully plans on getting bloody satisfaction from Holst, too. So he just quirks his lips at Jamie, then drops Peters into the water with a big splash. Peters yelps when he hits the water, and he just has time to look up at Mako and gasp, “Please—!” before he disappears under the water. Mako can’t see what goes on under the surface, but it only takes a few seconds before the water is colored red. It rises to the surface like a large, billowing cloud, and Jamie emerges in the middle of it, looking more like an animal than Mako has ever seen him. His blond hair has been tinted crimson and there’s a wild, feral expression on his face. For a second, Mako doesn’t recognize Jamie at all. But then Jamie grins up at him, and Mako is gripped by the urge to lift Jamie out of the water and kiss him. He doesn’t, though, because it’s in that moment that Peters’ floats up to the surface some feet behind Jamie. Mako can’t see what Jamie did to it—it’s floating face down in the water—but it doesn’t move anymore, and that’s good enough for Mako.

            “Well, fuck,” Mako sighs, rubbing over his face. The gravity of what they have done is hitting him, and things don’t look good for him and Jamie right now; they’re on the top floor of a building crawling with security, and Mako has to somehow smuggle a giant fish man out without anyone noticing him or the fact that the owner of the building is currently floating ass up while being very dead.

 

*

 

There’s a dull, dim pain thumping somewhere behind Mako’s eyes. Everything’s dark around him, and he can’t feel his own body. It’s like he’s floating in warm water, and Mako really wishes he could enjoy it, but that insisting thudding pain is distracting him. It keeps coming closer, keeps getting stronger, and it feels like watching a thunderstorm approaching from the distance. It forces Mako to gradually become aware of his body; it doesn’t feel like he’s floating anymore. No, in fact, the rest of his body is hurting as well. His hands are ice cold, and there’s a burning, tight pain around both his wrists. His legs feel heavy as stone, and his knees are aching. Blurred shapes tone out of the darkness, moving around himself without ever touching him. Mako tries to move his head, but a searing shoots through the back of his neck. The skin there feels tight and burnt, but Mako can’t move his hands to touch it. Actually, he can’t move at all, and the more he struggles, the louder the noise around his becomes. Mako then realizes that it’s not noise; it’s laughing, and in that moment, he jerks his head up and opens his eyes.

            “Morning, sunshine!” Holst is grinning down at him. “Up and at ‘em, tiger.”

            Mako’s head is throbbing with pain, but at least he knows what’s going on now. He’s backed up against a concrete wall, on his knees with his hands strapped to the wall. He has been slouching unconsciously until now which is why his hands are so cold (the straps have cut off the blood flow) and his knees are so sore (the floor is concrete, too). What Mako doesn’t know, though, is how he has ended up here. The last thing he remembers is… what _is_ the last thing he remembers?

            “Man, when they finally knocked you out, they knocked you out good,” Holst grins, hands in his pockets as he crouches down in front of Mako to try and look him in the eye. “They told me it took like five hits with the stun gun until you went down. You’ve been out for almost a day, big guy.”

            A rush of panic surges through Mako’s body, and he twists his head around, trying to locate Jamie. But Jamie isn’t in the room with him. The room is bare, except for Holst and a few goons. Everything else is cold concrete bathed in bright, florescent light.

            “Oh, you’re looking for your fish friend?” Holst asks with mock concern. “It’s not here right now. But don’t worry, fella. It’s doing fine. Of course, after we examined it, we realized that you’ve been feeding it blockers, so naturally we had to counteract those. The blockers should be wearing off by now.”

            Mako isn’t really listening to Holst; he’s still desperately trying to figure out how he went from the top floor of the building to this, which looks like a basement.

            “Of course, once we realized you were feeding the fish blockers, I was pretty interested in finding out why,” Holst goes on, getting up to lazily pace in front of Mako. “Because, you know, it doesn’t really make sense. I mean, sure you could be lying about wanting to breed on the fish, right? You could be one of those crazy animal rights people, but why feed the fish blockers? The heat inducing drugs we have would override those blockers in a second, so it couldn’t be that, could it?”

            Mako glares up at Holst, and even though his legs feel weak, he manages to get up. The straps bite painfully into his wrists, and he’s still locked up against the wall, but at least it’s Holst who has to look up at him now and not the other way around. Holst actually takes a step backwards, like the coward he is, but he’s not backing down.

            “Eventually I figured that maybe you fed the fish those blockers because of _you_ ,” Holst says, and his smirk grows, because Mako’s face must have somehow betrayed him. Mako doesn’t like where Holst is going with this, and Holst knows it. “So while you were out and more—cooperative, I had my little team examine you a bit, and guess what they found out.”

            “Holst, I will break your fucking neck,” Mako growls, his hands already clenching as if they were already around Holst’s neck.

            “Jackpot!” Holst cries with a triumphant clap, completely ignoring Mako’s threats. “A real, live alpha! Right here in my little net. You have no idea how excited that made me, my friend. Do you have any idea how much money you and the fish will make me? Tuck, may he rest in peace, was a shortsighted idiot, too comfortable with the money he had already made. But me? I have ambition, and I know that there are people out there who will pay fortunes to play with an alpha.”

            It feels like Mako’s insides have turned to stone; this is exactly the thing he has been hiding from his entire life, but now it has found him, and it scares the shit out of him. He has heard the stories, seen the video clips floating around online… alphas being drugged up and used as sex slaves, alphas being milked for their sperm, alphas being raped over and over again, because people think they’re special. Mako doesn’t want to be special; he wants to be left alone and not fetishized.

            “So you see, while I’m a bit upset with you for killing my friend,” Holst says, and he has the nerve to walk up close to Mako and stroke his cheek. “If you hadn’t, I would never have discovered your little secret, which is going to make me very, very rich. Oh, and speaking of secrets…” Holst chuckles, “the fish was stupid enough to cry out your real name when my guys took you down, and it didn’t take much digging to find out who you really are, Mako.”

            Violence and bloody murder are bubbling right under Mako’s skin, and there’s not a single cell in his body that’s not focused on ending Holst’s life as soon as possible.

            “It was pretty fun to find out where you used to live,” Holst hums, tapping Mako’s nose. “See, I was wondering why you were so interested in the fish in the first place, and when I found out that you had been living right next to the lake where I’d found it, well… I put two and two together, and I think you’re quite naughty for not wanting to share.”

            Mako is blind with rage, and he’s straining so hard against the straps that he can feel the warm trickle of blood running down his arms. Holst doesn’t seem to notice or care, because he just grins and turns away, heading for the door. Before he leaves, he turns and says, “Oh, I should tell you that there will be a doctor here in a few minutes to give you something to— _stimulate_ you a bit. You’re probably on blockers, too, and I want to see just how much of a big, bad alpha you really are before I start selling you.” He waves cheerfully at Mako before leaving the room, and Mako roars and strains against the constraints, but they are anchored deep into the wall and won’t budge. Mako keeps trying until one of Holst’s goons presses the barrel of his gun into Mako’s temple. The goon won’t shoot him, because Holst needs him alive, but Mako is exhausted, and he needs time to find out how to get him and Jamie out of this, so he quiets down. He doesn’t even fight it when the tiny, trembling doctor injects him with the heat inducing drugs; he just stands there as if in a trance, and he doesn’t fight when the doctor bandages his wrists either; he might as well let them buff him up while he finds a way out.

            But finding a way out is not easy, especially not when Mako has no idea where he is or even where Jamie is. As he stares at the opposite wall, mentally noting all possible ways to escape the room, his foggy brain starts re-discovering some of the time he has lost between Peters’ death and waking up here. Mako remembers some half-assed idea of simply stuffing Jamie into a large duffle bag and just leave with him in it. Mako remembers being surprised that they even made it down to the lobby, but then… what was it that happened? Mako strains his memory as hard as he can, and the fuzzy sound of Holst’s voice calling out to him emerges from the clouds in his brain.

            “Hey, Fawkes, have you seen Tuck? I’ve been calling him the last hour.”

            Yeah, it had gone to hell then. Holst had sniffed them out—maybe Jamie had moved in the bag, or maybe Mako had said or done something—and then—lots of violence. Mako had been in the middle to punching one guard to a pulp when another one had sneaked up on him and tazed him. Just like Holst had said, it had taken more than one stun to take Mako down, and maybe that’s why his memory of the whole thing is so blurry. He twists his neck to look up at his hands strapped to the wall; they’re still dark with dried blood, so it looks like he at least did some serious damage before he went down.

            Mako isn’t sure how long he’s left like this; there are no windows or clocks in this room, so it can have been an hour or maybe five. Mako’s body is getting increasingly exhausted, and he almost can’t feel his hands anymore. He tries to flex his fingers as often as he can, but there’s only so much he can do against gravity, and he still hasn’t found out how he’s going to get him and Jamie out of here. Mako doesn’t get to be alone with his thoughts, though, because a few minutes later, Holst barges through the door, followed by—Mako’s heart skips a beat—a large water tank on wheels that’s being pushed by a couple of goons. Inside it, looking confused and frustrated, is Jamie, and he swims up to the glass and presses his nose flat against it when he sees Mako. Mako tries to send Jamie a comforting look, but it’s hard when their situation looks this shitty.

            “Listen, Mako,” Holst says once the goons have parked the large tank in front of Mako, and he knocks on the glass and waves at Jamie with a grin. Jamie snarls at him. “I’ve had a great idea. See, what I could do very easily is poke this little fishy here with something that will make it go into heat, but I figured it would be much more fun for me to let you do that.”

            “What makes you think I’d do anything to help you, you prick?” Mako growls, but he can already feel Jamie’s effect on him. The blockers must be completely out of his system, but just looking at Jamie, even in this fucked up situation, is making Mako’s body tingle.

            “Oh, you’re not going to have a choice at all,” Holst chuckles and waves the doctor from before over. “See, I’m gonna poke _you_ with a little something. Shouldn’t take long to get you in the right mood, and when _you’re_ in the mood, so will fishy be. And then you’re gonna get the pleasure of watching me break in your little friend. See, I like to try out the merchandise before I sell it.”

            “You rotten fucking—!” Mako roars, but he’s interrupted by Holst who has grabbed the injection gun from the doctor and plunged it into Mako’s neck. It doesn’t hurt, not really. But there’s a rush of something hot that spikes down Mako’s spine. He has only heard of these drugs before, never tried them, because why would he? They’re supposed to provoke a heat or a rut more or less instantly, but they’re living up to their reputation; it feels like Mako’s entire body is swelling, like his blood is boiling, and every one of his senses are sharpened. Even though Jamie is trapped inside a closed water tank, Mako can _smell_ him, almost _taste_ him. He can smell everyone else in the room, too, but they don’t affect him like Jamie does; Mako tries not to look at him, but he can’t help himself. Jamie is drawing his gaze, and even if it didn’t, just knowing that Jamie is there in the room with him would probably have been enough. And what’s even worse is that Mako can tell that it’s affecting Jamie, too; Jamie is beginning to twitch a little in the water, and his movements are becoming restless.

            “That’s it,” Holst murmurs, watching both of them closely. “See, guys? See how easy it is? They’re riling each other up even though they don’t want to. Our alpha here must be pretty powerful. Breathe it in; you can smell the hormones in the air, can’t you? Too bad he’s not my type.”

            Every hair on Mako’s body is standing on end, and the air feels electric. He can tell that Jamie is doing his best to suppress it, but it’s coming on strong; he’s squirming in the water, and his cheeks are flushing darker.

            “Holy shit,” Holst laughs, pointing at Mako. “That’s an impressive bulge. It’s amazing you haven’t split the poor fish in two.”

            Mako has been so focused on Jamie that he hasn’t even realized that’s he’s rock hard and straining against the front of his pants. All the men in the room are eyeing him, some with obvious jealousy, others with obvious intimidation. Holst just looks over the moon, and he digs into his chest pocket to find a small bottle. He takes a sniff from it, then another one.

            “Hooh! I’m ready!” he whoops and laughs, tugging his tie looser as he glances at Jamie in the water. “I’ve been wanting to try this one out for years now.” He beams at Mako. “How is it? Is it as tight as it looks? If it can take your dick, it can probably take anything, huh. Maybe I should try with a whole hand first? Just to test the limits.”

            “You’re dead, Holst,” Mako growls, his entire body vibrating with rage, and he pulls against the straps keeping him chained to the wall. “You’re fucking dead!”

            “You must have had it at least a couple of times while you lived at that lake,” Holst continues as if he hasn’t heard Mako while gesturing at his goons to unlock and open the grate covering the water tank. “That reminds me! You probably want to know how I even found our mutual friend, right? I’ve actually been meaning to tell you since it was such a weird thing that happened. See, I was strapped for cash, and I knew there was a lot of money to be made in this business, but hey, you don’t just go into this, because you actually need one of these fish things first, right? So I start looking through all the lunatic websites that claim UFOs exists and all that shit. They’re full of mer sightings, but of course, people think they’re crazy, because no one has seen one of these for ages, okay? So I check out a few leads until I find this Australian couple who say their kid was drowned in a lake by a merfish. Nobody believed them, because they’re not supposed to be freshwater fish, and the police hadn’t found anything either. But these people, right, they keep saying it was a lake monster that drowned their kid, so I figured it was worth checking out. And guess what I found!”

            Holst looks at Mako with excitement as if he’s expecting Mako to congratulate him on a job well done. Mako doesn’t congratulate him; he instead offers Holst a look so furious that Holst actually pales a bit and takes a step back. But he quickly recovers and just smirks at Mako.

            “Alright, boys,” he says and turns to the goons. “Let’s get this fish out and ready. If you get it up, you can hold it down while I take good care of it. I’m sure we can convince it to stay still with a bit of charm.”

            Something snaps inside Mako’s head when he sees Holst’s goon reach into the tank and try to grab Jamie by the hair. Mako’s massive body is already on edge from the hormones spiking through his veins, and when the goons manages to grab a handful of Jamie’s hair, something happens; Mako goes blind. He can’t see, he can’t hear, he can feel anything. All he can do is let out a roar that sounds more like a living manifestation of a thunderclap than a human being. In a surge of energy, of power, Mako fists his hands and pulls, and the straps around his wrists break as if they were mere threads, ripping the bandages off Mako’s wrists and splattering everyone around him with a spray of blood.

            Everyone in the room jump back, including Holst who press up against the glass of the tank. The goons abandon whatever they were doing and fumble with getting their guns out, but it’s too late; Mako has already grabbed one of them and hurled him across the room at the others. They collide, knocking them all off their feet, and none of them have time to get up before Mako is over them, the sound of his heartbeat and their bones snapping in his ears. Blood is rushing to his head, drowning out all thoughts until…

            There’s a loud crack, and a split-second later, Mako feels a blinding, stinging pain in his left shoulder. He grabs, and for a moment he thinks the blood on his hand is from the mess of bodies under him, and it is. But it’s also his own, and Mako twists around to see Holst behind him.

            Holst is still backed up against the water tank, gun held up.

            “Move another muscle, and I’ll put one in your fucking skull,” Holst yells at him, his eyes wide and his face grey. “Just get your fucking hands up and— _argh!_ ”

            Mako never gets to hear what else he was supposed to do, because Jamie has swum up and leaned over the side of the tank to hook his fingers into Holst’s mouth. Even through the fog of blood and pain clouding his head, Mako can appreciate just how amazingly strong Jamie is; Jamie lifts Holst up by his mouth and tugs him into the water. Holst is wriggling and screaming, but his voice disappears in a gurgle as Jamie pulls him under. For a moment, Holst has his back turned, and Mako can’t see what’s going on, but then Holst twists around. Holst’s mouth is wide open and blood is gushing out from it. Jamie appears behind him, holding Holst’s tongue in his webbed fist. He drops it, leaving it to slowly float up towards the surface, as he bares his teeth and sinks them into the front of Holst’s throat. Mako watches with horrified amazement as Jamie proceeds to rip Holst’s throat straight out of his neck. The water in the tank quickly turns so red that Mako can’t see anything else, but his gaze meets Holst’s one last time before he disappears into the billowing cloud of blood; Holst isn’t smirking anymore.

            “Mako!”

Jamie comes up from the bloody water, leaning over the edge of the tank. “Mako!”

            Mako takes a step towards him, but he realizes that his feet feels like led. In fact, most of his body feels like led, and there’s a steady flow of blood running down his left arm.

            “Mako!” Jamie calls to him again, and Mako forces his head up so he can look into Jamie’s amber eyes. Jamie is reaching out for him and he’s smiling. If Mako could just grab his outstretched hand, then everything will be okay.

            Mako doesn’t know where the strength is coming from, but he’s moving. His feet are dragging over the blood-soaked floor, but he’s moving. Moving is important.

 

*

 

Jamie is in his arms, wrapped in a bloody jacket and twisting his fingers his Mako’s equally bloody clothes. They’re stumbling down the naked hallway, turning a corner, down another hallway, and then another and another in the mazelike hallway. Mako’s strength is ebbing away fast, and Jamie is getting heavier and heavier.

            “Keep goin’,” Jamie whispers in his ear over and over again. “My Mako. Keep goin’.”

            Mako’s frustration is growing for every corner they turn, for every dead end they meet. The wound in his shoulder is throbbing painfully, and he can feel the constant gush of blood slowly draining out of him. This basement will be his death. He will expire here on the concrete floor with Jamie in his arms, and Jamie will either die or be found and taken away from him again. Mako will die a pathetic and violent death just like he had always thought he would. It had been silly of him to believe that maybe he could live out the last years of his life with someone like Jamie and actually be happy. Mako’s life has been nothing but violence, and it’s going end that way, too.

            “Door! Door!” Jamie yelps, tugging at Mako’s shirt, and Mako groans as he half-collapses against the metal door, grunting as he tries to push it open. It’s heavy, so heavy, and Mako is just about to give up when the door finally yields and they’re find themselves in… the parking garage under the aquarium?

            A rush of adrenaline shoots through Mako so fast that he almost jumps. This is it! They’re out! The fresh rush of energy provides Mako with enough strength to carry Jamie past the rows of cars until he finds his own. A few minutes later, Jamie is in the backseat and Mako is twisting the keys in the ignition. They’re going to get away. They’re going to make it.

            “The sea,” Jamie whispers from the backseat as they leave the garage with a loud roar from the engine, and Mako laughs loudly, almost blinded by the daylight that meets them. “I want to see the sea.”

            “Yeah, we’ll go to the sea,” Mako laughs, his left arm hanging numb by his side as the blood slowly trickles down from his shoulder. “We’ll go see the sea.”

 

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! I hope you had a good time reading the final, full chapter :)   
> I wonder if Mako and Jamie ever make it to the sea. Mako was in pretty bad shape when we left him.... guess we'll just have to find out in the epilogue, won't we? :^)
> 
> You're more than welcome to come yell at me, because I know I'm being a dick here x) Leave me a comment or come find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/drrtyrabbit) or [Tumblr](https://rabbitvswonderland.tumblr.com/)!


	6. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, what happened after Jamie and Mako got away? Did Mako even make it? He was bleeding kinda hard, wasn't he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well well well! It's the end! I'm not super happy about it, but it's true: the end is here Y_____Y
> 
> Also, this epilogue is dedicated to Applesap!
> 
> Enjoy! ^^

*

 

Mako groans as he wakes up and realizes that he’s been sleeping on his bad shoulder all night. The joint is aching, and it’s probably going to hurt for the rest of day—maybe he should just dish out the cash and get a doctor to take a look at it. Then again, it only hurts if he’s slept on it. Mako pokes at the ugly scar, then yawns and stumbles out of bed. The sun is shining through the blinds, and judging from the splashy noises coming through the open window, Mako isn’t the only one who’s awake. The construction people had looked at him pretty funny when he had told them that he wanted to turn the pool into a giant freshwater pond, including the hot tub, but they had done as he had asked, because people usually don’t pose questions if you just pay them enough. They should only have known what Mako had been keeping in the tub in the bathroom.

            Mako snorts softly to himself at the memory as he brews himself a cup of coffee. From where he’s standing he has a clear view of the back deck through the large glass patio door. The skies are clear, and there’s a big, fat seagull strutting across the deck, probably looking for scraps from the salmon Mako grilled last night. It was good, really good, and Mako makes a mental note to himself to walk down to the docks later to get more dinner tonight. With his mug in hand, Mako shuffles over to the patio door, slips into his flip-flops and tugs the door open.

            A breath of fresh sea air greets him, and Mako inhales deeply before stepping out onto the deck and shooing the irritated seagull away. The view out here is amazing, and Mako swallows down his blockers with a sip of coffee while gazing out over the waves lazily rolling up the sandy shore. Further out, beyond the small cove, the waves are fiercer and bigger, but in here they’re calm and soft. Mako had known he had to live here the second he’d found the little house on the beach. And the best part is that there are no neighbors; they are all further down the coast where the sand is softer, the shops closer, and the waves bigger for surfing. It’s just Mako out here. Well, Mako and…

            “Oi, about time, mate,” Jamie calls to Mako when Mako rounds the corner of the house. “I’ve been waiting forever.”

            Here on the south side of the house is where the pool used to be. Instead, there’s a large pond cut into the large rock hill the house is next to. The water is dark and full of plants, and the only thing left that even resembles the old pool, is the slightly elevated hot tub off to one side. It’s covered in moss and twine, sporting large, colorful flowers.  The greenery growing from the top of the hill are hanging over the pond, shading it, but when the sun gets high enough on the skies, the sunlight will filter through the leaves and make the water look like it’s sparkling.

            Mako grunts and sits down on the edge of the pond, takes off his flip-flops before letting his feet sink into the pleasantly cool water. Jamie emerges right before him and grabs the edge to heave himself up and smooch Mako’s lips before sliding back into the water. It’s cold and slimy, and Mako wipes his lips with the back of his hand with a snort.

            “You taste weird,” Jamie tells him, licking his lips.

            “It’s coffee,” Mako hums, gesturing to the mug in his hand.

            “Coffee,” Jamie repeats thoughtfully. “Can I have a taste?”

            “Fuck no,” Mako laughs. “You got plenty of energy as it is.”

            Jamie just sticks his tongue out at him, then grins and reaches up towards Mako. Mako puts the mug down and reaches down to grab Jamie and lift him into his lap. He half wishes that he was wearing more than just his boxers under his open robe, because Jamie is wet and cold, but then his clothes would just have gotten soaked, so it’s just as well. Jamie wriggles in his lap, twisting around so he can slip his arm around Mako’s shoulders and mouth kisses along Mako’s jaw and cheek.

            “So it’s that kinda morning, huh?” Mako grunts, not at all displeased with the situation.

            Jamie snickers and nods, his slick fingers threading through Mako’s tousled hair.

            “Don’t you want it?” Jamie asks him, his long tail curling around one of Mako’s legs. It’s impossible for Jamie to sit still when he’s worked up, and it’s impossible for Mako not to get hard when Jamie is constantly squirming in his lap.

            “Maybe I’m too lazy this morning,” Mako hums and snorts at the horrified expression on Jamie’s face. “But if you’re that horny, maybe you should just take care of it yourself.”

            Jamie frowns. “Like how?”

            “Like this.” Mako gently pushes Jamie off his lap to sit next to him. Then he reaches down to push the waistband of his boxers down just enough to free his fat dick. It twitches a bit when the fresh air brushes over the hot skin, and Mako smirks at Jamie as he lays down on his back, hands behind his head.

            “It’s all yours,” he says to Jamie who blinks at him, then at his cock. “Go on. Fuck yourself on my dick.”

            Jamie looks lost for a moment, just glancing from Mako’s face to his cock and back again. Mako can't help but smirk.

            “You can do it,” he urges, clenching his muscles and making his leaking dick bounce a little on his belly.

            Jamie snorts, then climbs atop Mako with a soft grunt, curling his tail even tighter around Mako’s leg to steady himself. He licks his lips, grinning flushed down at Mako, and he’s about to reach down for Mako’s cock when Mako stops him.

            “Wait,” Mako says and digs into his pocket to find the small bottle of blockers. He pops it open and hands Jamie a pill. “Here, take this. No more eggs right now.”

            Jamie doesn’t take the pill, but he does open his mouth and sticks his out his tongue with a grin. Mako huffs a soft laugh and places the pill on Jamie’s pink tongue. Jamie obediently swallows the pill and shows off his sharp fangs in a wide grin afterwards. Then he leans down to kiss Mako, purring softly against his lips while squirming and rubbing his soft belly against Mako’s cock.

            Mako groans into the kiss, because it feels pretty damn good already, and he wouldn’t be upset if they just stayed like this. But Jamie isn’t quite as satisfied as Mako apparently, because after a moment, he reaches down to steady Mako’s dick; it’s actually pretty amazing how good it feels every time. They’ve done this countless times before, and Mako is still kind of mind blown at how incredible Jamie feels stretched around his cock.

            Jamie moans lewdly into Mako’s mouth as he guides the sensitive head to his hole, and he shudders when it breaches his body, stretching his muscles.

            It has been all fun and games up until now, but keeping his hands tucked away behind his head suddenly doesn’t feel like a great idea at after all. The urge to reach down, grab Jamie by the hips and roll them both over so Mako can pound Jamie senseless is almost overwhelming, but somehow Mako manages to simply grab two handfuls of his own hair behind his head instead.

            Jamie seems a bit uncertain at first, and it’s honestly not that easy either when you’re very slippery, your partner is very round, and you only have one arm, but Jamie somehow manages to settle into a relatively steady rhythm. And if Mako has to be completely honest with himself, it probably wouldn’t have mattered that much, because it doesn’t really matter that much how Jamie is moving, because it feels fucking amazing anyway. It feels so amazing, in fact, that it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes before Mako’s climax is so close that he swears he can taste it on the tip of his tongue. Before he comes, though, Mako finally removes his hands from the back of his head to grab Jamie.

            “Lie back,” he gasps, rolling Jamie over to lie on his back on the ground.

            Jamie complains loudly when Mako’s dick is tugged out of him (Mako’s knot is already swollen enough to make a rather loud, dirty noise when Mako pulls out), but he stops when Mako kneels next to Jamie and shoves three fingers into him. Jamie’s cock is twitching on his pale belly, slick and slimy and leaking all over his belly, and Jamie reaches down with his only hand to jerk himself off. It looks so incredibly filthy that Mako almost wants to laugh, but he’s much too busy with fingering Jamie and grabbing his own dick.    

            “M’gonna come,” he breathes out, sitting up a little straighter to aim at Jamie’s soft belly—he doesn’t know what it is, but he has some kind of kink with that belly. It’s just so soft and innocent-looking, and Mako wants to make it as dirty as he possibly can. So when his orgasm shudders through him a moment later, Mako curls his fingers inside Jamie while groaning and watching his dick swell in his fist, splattering Jamie’s belly with thick ropes of warm come.

            Jamie trembles, looking helplessly up at Mako, while his hand rushes up and down the shaft of his dick. He’s not quite there yet, and Mako—even though he’s lightheaded from his own climax—seizes the opportunity to shove Jamie’s hand away and replace it with his own. Jamie lets out a long, drawn out purring clicking noise, and just a second later, he comes all over himself and Mako’s hand.

 

*

 

            “Mako?”

            “Mhh?”

            “You said you would take me out again today.”

            “Did I?”

            “Yeah.”

            Mako grunts and rubs over his face. He’s way too comfortable in the hot tub turned pond/mud hole to really want to move, and he especially doesn’t want to move into the colder sea. He might have gotten the hot tub converted to what looks more like a miniature swamp than an actual hot tub, but he had been clever enough to keep the heating elements. He shifts a bit with apparently looks displeased enough for Jamie to tug at his arm.

            “Come on, mate, you promised.”

            “Fine,” Mako sighs as if going for a swim in the gorgeous azure blue ocean is actually a punishment. “Do you think this one will be okay while we’re gone?”

            Jamie grins and turns to look at the egg, nestled half submerged in the warm water on a nest of seaweed and soft mud. He adjusts the egg a bit and wraps a bit more seaweed around to keep it safe and hidden.

            “I think it’s fine,” he replied and turns back to Mako, beaming at him.

            “Alright,” Mako hums and gets up. “Let’s go and see if we can get you to swim in that damn ocean.”

            He lifts Jamie into his arms and pecks his cheek as he carries Jamie across the deck and down the stairs, heading for the beach.

 

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaah yes, sweet fluff! We all need a happy ending, right? I know I do ^^;;
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who's been supporting me and this little fic. It really means the world to me, and you guys are just fucking awesome, tbh.
> 
> I don't know what my next roadrat project is going to be. I have kind of dedicated April to my original novel that I've been working on since November '16, but I doubt I can keep my hands off the junk boys for long x) So you'll probably hear from me again soon!
> 
> In the meantime, you can follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/drrtyrabbit) or [Tumblr](https://rabbitvswonderland.tumblr.com/)!


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